Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 13: Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, who assumed the office of Chief Justice of J&K High Court on February 2, 2015, will retire tomorrow.
In his message to the members of Bar on the eve of his demitting the office, Chief Justice said that he had given top priority to disposal of old cases and he could dispose of more than 9350 cases including 5000 main cases only because of the cooperation and valuable assistance rendered by the members of the Bar, Advocate Generals and their teams.
“Out of 55000 cases more than 6000 were contempt petitions due to non compliance of the orders passed even from 2002. These petitions were also given priority in disposal and the contempt petitions which were pending before the Division Bench were mostly disposed of and the orders passed by the Single Judges, who demitted the office, were also posted and compliance of the orders was made possible to the maximum”, he said.
“The reason behind the approach was that unless the orders which were already passed are complied with there is no meaning in passing fresh orders. I am of the firm view that if orders passed, which became final, are not complied with the litigants will lose faith in the judicial system”, Chief Justice said.
It is pertinent to mention here that 38 Mobile Magistrate/Sub Courts became permanent only on the intervention of the Chief Justice. Similarly, widow/disability/old age pension was enhanced from Rs 500 to Rs 1000 per month on the intervention of Chief Justice which benefited more than 5.7 lakh persons. Release of benefits to families of Jammu migrants numbering around 1000 families in a contempt petition also goes to the credit of Chief Justice.
Moreover, statutory authorities namely Accountability Commission, State Human Rights Commission, State Consumer Redressal Commission, the School Fee fixation Committee, Chairman Selection/ Oversight Committee under the Juvenile Justice Act were made functional following orders passed on judicial side.
During his tenure as Chief Justice, construction of many new District and Sub Court complexes was commenced or completed and some of them were inaugurated. Few amongst them are District Court Complex Mominabad, Srinagar, Pulwama, Pattan, Baramulla, Anantnag, Samba, Udhampur, Ukhral etc.
He has lauded the cooperation and support extended by Bar, officers and staff of the Registry of the High Court, Personal Staff (Secretaries/ Bench Secretaries/ Private Secretaries/ Stenographers).
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