Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 23: Supreme Court today stayed the appointment of newly selected District and Sessions Judges till December 14, 2012 when the petition challenging the selection list would be listed for final arguments.
The selection list was challenged in a Writ Petition titled Zubair Ahmed Mir and Others Versus State of Jammu and Kashmir and Others on various grounds and it was first heard by a Bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai on September 4, 2012.
During the course of hearing, Senior Advocate Soli J Sorabjee appearing for the petitioners had submitted an additional affidavit, which was taken on record by the Supreme Court bench and accordingly notice was issued.
Thereafter the Writ Petition came up for hearing before the Supreme Court on October 3, 2012 and the bench after considering the prayer of the Advocate Sunil Fernandes appearing for the respondents— J&K State and others, issued directions to the Registry to put up this case in the third week of November 2012.
Today when the Writ Petition came up for hearing the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Desai after hearing counsels for the respondents and the petitioners, directed the Jammu and Kashmir High Court not to make appointment of newly selected District and Sessions Judges till next date of hearing.
The Supreme Court also directed the Registry to list the Writ Petition on December 14, 2012 for final arguments.
The Writ Petition was filed by aggrieved candidates (lawyers practicing in various courts of Jammu and Kashmir), who could not clear interview for the Higher Judiciary (Direct Recruitment) Examination for the posts of District and Sessions Judges, under Article 32 of Constitution of India. Under this Article, any aggrieved party can directly knock the doors of the Supreme Court.
In the petition, it has been submitted that those candidates who secured good marks in written examination were given very less marks in the interviews while as those who could not perform well in the written test made it through in interview for ‘obvious’ reasons.
They have also submitted before the Supreme Court that the J&K Higher Judiciary Recruitment Rules, 2009 are contrary to the Supreme Court directions including those given in All India Judges Versus Union of India case. The petitioners have specifically challenged Rule 5 and 8 while terming them as ambiguous. “There are glaring ambiguities in the J&K Higher Judiciary Recruitment Rules”, they added.
Moreover, the laid down guidelines state that there should be minimum three-member Selection Committee but there was only two member Selection Committee for the examination conducted in pursuance to Advertisement Notice 501 dated August 1, 2011, the petitioners further submitted.
Around 215 candidates had appeared in Higher Judiciary (Direct Recruitment) Examination conducted by the State High Court. Though 13 posts were desired to be filled up and 15 candidates were short listed for interview only nine candidates were declared successful.
Names of nine advocates were selected for District Judges—five from Kashmir and four from Jammu region, in the month of August this year. The list of nine candidates included Muhammad Altaf Khan, Haq Nawaz Zargar, Tahir Khurshid Raina, Shazia Tabsum, Tasleem Arief, Sonia Gupta, Rajinder Sapru, Naseer Ahmed Dar and Pawan Kumar Kundal.
The name of one of the selected candidates has already been withdrawn from the list as he had been ‘inadvertently’ awarded excess marks in the examination while as process to withdraw the name of another has been initiated on the ground that he had close links with Pakistan trained militant.
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