Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 3: President of India Ram Nath Kovind today issued the warrants for appointment of Justice Gita Mittal as Chief Justice and Advocate Sindhu Sharma and former District and Sessions Judge Rashid Ali Dar as Judges of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 95 of the Constitution of J&K, the President has appointed Justice Gita Mittal, Judge of the Delhi High Court as the Chief Justice of J&K High Court with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office”, read the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
Similar notification has also been issued in respect of appointment of Sindhu Sharma and Rashid Ali Dar as Judges of the J&K High Court with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices.
Born on December 9, 1958, Justice Gita Mittal is an alumna of the Lady Irwin Higher Secondary School, Lady Shri Ram College for Women and the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. She was appointed as an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court on July 16, 2004.
Prior to her appointment as Additional Judge, she had an illustrious legal practice in all courts and other judicial forums since 1981. Justice Mittal was confirmed as a Permanent Judge on the February 20, 2006 and appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on April 14, 2017.
As a Judge, she has presided over several jurisdictions including heading a Division Bench hearing criminal appeals involving life and death sentence references; matters of the Armed Forces; Cooperative Societies; Criminal Contempt References; Criminal Appeals; Death References; Company Appeals; Writ Petitions and Letters Patent Appeals relating to the Armed Forces.
Advocate Sindhu Sharma has become the first woman judge of the J&K High Court in 90 years. The Jammu & Kashmir High Court, which was established in 1928, has not had a single woman judge in its 90 years of existence. The High Court has had 107 judges in these 90 years and all of them have been men.
Born on October 10, 1972, Advocate Sindhu Sharma is presently Assistant Solicitor General of India in J&K High Court, Jammu Wing and she was the first lady Advocate of State to be appointed as Assistant Solicitor General of India. She cleared LLB in the year 1996 from Punjab University, Chandigarh and was subsequently enrolled as an advocate. She was appointed Assistant Solicitor General of India for Jammu & Kashmir High Court at Jammu in November 2014 for a period of 03 years and was granted extension for a further period of 03 years in November 2017.
She is also counsel for NHPC and Power Grid Corporation of India. She was also elected as Vice President of J&K High Court Bar Association Jammu in the year 2013.
Rashid Ali Dar, who attained superannuation as Principal District and Session Judge Srinagar on November 30, 2017, had his earlier education in the local area up to primary classes in village Brinjan. He did his graduation at Amar Singh College in 1977-78 and LLB from University of Kashmir in 1980.
He joined Bar in May 1980, practiced in Munsiff Court Chadoora, District Court Budgam, District Court Srinagar and High Court up to June 1984. He had been founder / chairman of NGO Green Peace Srinagar and human right society.
He qualified combined competitive examination in 1984 and joined Administrative Service, commonly known as KAS in June 1984. However, he left Administrative Services in January 1987 and joined KCS Judicial and then worked as Munsif Mahore, Munsif Sumbal, Munsif Udhampur, Ist Munsif in Jammu, Munsif Chadoora, Munsif Sub-Registrar Srinagar, Munsif Pulwama and Munsif Bandipora.
He was promoted as Sub-Judge in 1996 and worked as Sub-Judge Ramnagar, Sub-Judge Wakf J&K, Deputy Registrar High Court Srinagar, Sub Judge/Chief Judicial Magistrate Budgam, City Judge Srinagar, Chief Judicial Magistrate / Sub Registrar Srinagar and Sub Judge / Chief Judicial Magistrate Anantnag.
He was promoted as District Judge in April 2007 and worked as Special Judge TADA/POTA, 2nd Additional District and Sessions Judge Srinagar and Special Judge Anti Corruption.
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