Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Nov 12: Governor, N N Vohra has further sought detailed response from the State Government and High Court Authorities over their decision of giving pre-mature retirement to three District and Session Judges in June this year.
Official sources confirmed to EXCELSIOR that Raj Bhavan official have sent a detailed communiqué to the State Government seeking their response on certain issues related to termination of services of these judicial officials.
“Recently, the three District and Session Judges and few other members of judiciary fraternity have submitted memorandum to Raj Bhavan over this issue. Based on that, the Raj Bhavan Authorities have written to the State Government and High Court seeking their response on five issues raised by the legal fraternity”, sources added.
Sources also confirmed that the detailed note had been received by the State Government officials and a copy of the same had been forwarded to the High Court Authorities today.
Notwithstanding the communiqué received from Governor, legal experts opined, “the decision for giving pre-mature retirement had been given by the Full Court in its meeting and is therefore a legal binding on the State Government”.
Elaborating over the issues raised by Raj Bhavan, sources remarked, “the note has questioned as to why the review of performance of these District Judges was delayed, when it could have been done earlier also”, adding, “as per guidelines of Shetty Commission, the review can be done at the age of 50, 55 or 58 and the process has to be initiated six months prior to the age at which review is done. In this case, while two Judges were approaching 58 age, another was nearing the age of 55”.
“Another point raised by the Governor’s Secretariat says as to why the High Court Authorities opted for giving three month salary to these Judges and not three-month notice as per laid down service rules”, sources remarked adding, “in cases of pre-mature retirement, the individual can be either given three-months prior notice or three months salary”.
“As per convention, the State Government and the High Court Authorities would now submit the detailed reply over all the issues raised by Raj Bhavan within the shortest possible time”, sources emphasized.
In the first week of October, the State Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah had finally put its seat on pre-mature retirement of three District and Session Judges after the High Court had declared them as ‘dead-wood’ officially some time back.
“The order for pre-mature retirement of three District and Sessions Judges, which was considered a historic decision in Judiciary, was issued on June 2. However, the State Cabinet took nearly four months to put its seal on the order”, sources said.
“The decision had been taken by the Full Court in its meeting held on June 2, presided over by Chief Justice and such recommendations are binding on the State Government. Though, the Government sat over the issue for several months, it had to finally give its consent and now the matter has been referred to Governor, N N Vohra in first week of October”, sources opined.
It is pertinent to mention here that the decision of the Administrative Committee was placed before the Full Court, which met on June 2, 2013, and the Full Court headed by Chief Justice M M Kumar approved the decision for pre-mature retirement of three District and Sessions Judges unanimously.
These District Judges were Muzaffar Iqbal Qureshi, Additional District Judge, TADA/ POTA Srinagar, who was also holding the charge of Additional District Judge, Bank Cases, Brij Mohan Gupta, Principal District and Sessions Judge Bhaderwah and Shakti Kumar Gupta, Principal District and Sessions Judge Kargil.
An Administrative Committee of the High Court headed by Chief Justice M M Kumar while assessing the performance of the Judicial Officers found these three judges as ‘dead-wood’ for the judiciary.
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