Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 2: Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, M M Kumar today ordered that no official authority is competent to comment on the court orders.
While passing orders on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Mujeeb Andrabi versus State and others, the Chief Justice said: “All the courts are in power to pass orders to render justice. No official authority is competent to comment on the orders of the court.”
The order was passed in reference to a compliance report filed by the Commissioner Srinagar Municipality, G N Qasba before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court last month in which court directions were held responsible for SMC’s failure to remove the illegal constructions from Srinagar city.
The Chief Justice in his observations asked the Advocate General of the State, Mohammad Ishaq Qadri that he should ensure that no such acts are repeated. “If this will happen again we will not spare anybody. Advocate General is asked to ensure that no such act be repeated in future”, the CJ observed.
The Commissioner SMC today tendered an apology before the Court and assured the Chief Justice M M Kumar that he will not commit such a mistake in future.
The Division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice D S Thakur, was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Mujeeb Andrabi versus State and others.
The PIL sought making the Srinagar city as hawker free city by removing all hawkers from the city and to provide them alternate space.
Qasba had to apologise as while complying the High Court order (dated 22/05/2013), the SMC authorities filed response where in one of the paras about failure on part of the SMC to remove the illegal constructions court directions were held responsible. “The problem gets further aggravated due to passing of interim orders by this Hon’ble court due to which the SMC could not take any action”, reads the SMC response.
As the proceedings of the case began today, the Chief Justice asked Advocate General for Commissioner of SMC. Qasba immediately stood up before the court.
The CJ asked Qasba: “Are you not attending the academy for training. You have done a blunder which no educated person can do. Don’t you know how to deal with the legal proceedings.”
The Chief Justice while passing an order said that fault of others can not be passed on to the court. “The Commissioner SMC personally apologized to the Court. The Deponent undertakes that in future no such mistake shall be committed or allowed to happen in future”, the order reads.
The Court has asked the SMC to file a fresh compliance report in a week and the next proceeding of the case has been fixed for July 9.
The Court has also granted a week’s time to the Traffic authorities to file the status report.
The PIL titled Mujeeb Andrabi versus State and others further sought directions to the concerned departments for expediting the road widening from North side of Srinagar at HMT-Narbal crossing and provide alternate routes to Pantha Chowk traffic mess.
It has also sought directions to remove all illegal structures erected in violation of Master plan as the SMC has failed to check its violation.
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