Justice M.M. Kumar, who took over as the new Chief Justice of J&K High Court on June 8 this year, is determined to bring about certain far-reaching reforms in the State judiciary. He has taken some innovative steps that are bound to give a new initiative to the functioning of the entire State judiciary. His reform overdo aims at two objectives (a) reduce pendency of cases, and (b) streamline judicial process. The first major step he took in the direction was to fill vacancies of nine District and Session Judges in the State. This was done with full consultation of the senior judges of the State High Court. Evidently, appointment of nine District and Session Judges will reduce the heavy burden otherwise carried by lower courts or the High Court. Among other significant reforms floated by he Chief Justice are assigning particular wing to the judges of the High Court for one month instead of prevailing practice of 15 days. This could ensure focusing more cases pertaining to that particular wing and thus reduce the time needed for their disposal. By making the Divisional Bench a regular feature of the High Court, it is expected that most of the Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) would be cleared by the end of October this year.
The Chief Justice has been holding the court regularly in summer capital and at least ten cases are being decided on daily basis. A significant thing about the methodology of the Chief Justice in pursuing streamlining of judiciary’s functioning has been the introduction of video conferencing by which consultations are made with senior judges of the High Court at Srinagar and Jammu. Apart from being a democratic and most reasonable way of improving the function of the courts, the practice helps avoid all chances of injustice to the incumbents. The selection of 9 Advocates for appointment as District and Sessions Judges was done through video conferencing. It is hoped that more positive and beneficial reforms will flow from the methodology of Chief Justice M.M. Kumar.
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