Process for appointment of four HC Judges initiated

Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Jan 25: To further strengthen the working of High Court, Chief Justice in consultation with State Government has initiated the process for filling up vacancies of Judges.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the High Court collegium comprising Chief Justice, M Kumar, Justice Virender Singh and Justice Yaqoob Mir has sent its recommendations for filling up of four vacant posts.
“As per the convention, all the remaining four vacant posts in the High Court are to be filled by members from lawyer fraternity and the recommendations have been made keeping in mind this aspect”, sources said, “the recommendations include names of  Neeru Goswami, Deputy Advocate General, Advocate Sanjeev Shukla, Javed Ahmad Kawoosa, Senior Additional Advocate General and Advocate Nazir Ahmad Baig”.
While High Court authorities and State Government officials are tight lipped over the entire matter, sources confirmed that the recommendations had been made few days back.
“Copy of the recommendations has been sent to the Governor N N Vohra and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah”, sources asserted.
It is pertinent to mention here that Jammu and Kashmir High Court has total strength of 14 Judges and at present there are 10 incumbents including Chief Justice. The sanctioned strength includes 9 Permanent Judges and five Additional Judges.
These are Chief Justice M M Kumar, Justice Virender Singh, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, Justice Hasnain Massodi, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Bansi Lal Bhat and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal.
Three vacancies were created after the retirement of former Judges including Justice Pramod Kohli, Justice Sunil Hali and Justice J P Singh. Another vacancy was created when retired High Court Judge Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain’s younger brother and a prominent law publisher Advocate Hakeem Ishtiyaz Hussain died a day after his name was cleared and recommended by the Collegium of State High Court in June 2012.
The filling up of four vacant posts of High Court Judges would go a long way in bringing down pendency of cases, sources said, adding presently thousands of cases are pending in Jammu and Srinagar wings of the High Court because of shortage of Judges.
In March last year five Judges were appointed simultaneously for the first time in the history of State judiciary.
According to laid down convention, the process of appointment of Judges in High Court is initiated by the respective Chief Justices.
“A person should have practised at least 10 years as a lawyer to become a High Court judge. The Chief Justice of the High Court, with the help of two other senior-most judges, draws up a panel of prospective candidates. There is no system of public intimation or advertisements eliciting applications for the posts. After examining the credentials of the prospective  candidates on factors such as competence, integrity and State intelligence inputs, the High Court Chief Justice forwards the names of the prospective judges to the CJI for confirmation”, sources remarked.
The CJI consults the collegium of four other senior-most judges of the apex court. The CJI and the collegium can approve or reject the names.
If the collegium approves the names, they are sent to the President of India through the Union Government for appointments.

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