About the state of affairs in the Jammu and Kashmir Forensic Science Laboratory, we have many a time, highlighted gross neglect by the administration to put it on firm, professional and workable rails. Trained and professional personnel manning it and handling specialised tasks, left one by one, mainly due to attaining superannuation without the same getting simultaneously suitably replenished. That unfortunately landed the Laboratory in such a quagmire whereby it could be termed as just existing only let alone functioning professionally in a sensitive Union Territory like Jammu and Kashmir which had borders with Pakistan where cracking of crimes of serious nature and of various hues on scientific ways, the role of a modern, well organised and superbly functioning Forensic Laboratory was not only paramount but mandatory. It is beyond comprehension that instead of posting those personnel in the Laboratory who are well trained by the country’s designated Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science for handling the sophisticated task, Teachers and Masters from Education Department have been posted. The decision to virtually drain some Teachers and Masters from the UT Department of School Education to the Forensic Laboratory smacks of a total misunderstanding of what role the Forensic Laboratory had to play and how these Masters and Teachers posted in Government High Schools, Middle and even Primary Schools could deliver in the Forensic Laboratory and even man key positions there. It is said that in certain cases, efficiency depreciates with time but in the decision making process, there was no scope of any depreciation in either the quality, the precision and the results obtained let alone room for any type of fallout. The funny aspect of this decision is that the proverbial one leg in one boat and the other in the second, applies here also in the sense that these Teachers and Masters are holding their posts back in the parent department and had been just ”deployed” there. Could it be the other way that a thing which normally has been done nowhere in the country , has been done as an ”innovative and novel ” step for other states and UTs to emulate in that for filling 28 posts of Assistant Scientific Officers with the available human resources in the Education Department and the General Administration Department according sanction to the deputation of 10 Masters and Teachers in the Laboratory for one year, seems all ill planned. Their lien with the Education Department, seniority, promotion and other benefits too would be from the parent department, what interest these personnel would otherwise take in the said assignment? Even if the basic qualification required for the posts of the Forensic Laboratory is the same as possessed by these Teachers, yet they do not have the additional but mandatory professional qualification or any professional training to handle cases pertaining to crimes and allied matters. What would they be doing “practically” is anybody’s guess and how much could they help the prosecution in building up its cases strong to be presented in the courts to get the culprits convicted is not hard to comprehend. The other part of the story is that the Education Department could afford to spare them which means the department was over staffed and could dispense its staff to other departments without its own working getting affected due to their absence. This again is an issue of managerial skills and requirement of how much staff on need based principle was required in the UT institutions. Still, the question is what after 1 year of their deputation and how staff required by the Forensic Laboratory would be arranged in that case. The most pertinent question, however, is as to why proper recruitments are not made and when shall the UT have a sound, workable and comprehensive Personnel Policy in place to address problems like the one under reference?
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