HC seeks explanation from all District & Sessions Judges

*CJ finds excuses of delay implausible

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 20: Taking serious note of non-submission of monthly work-done statements, the High Court has sought explanation from all the Principal District and Sessions Judges of the State within a period of one week. The step, first of its kind in the history of Jammu and Kashmir judiciary, has been taken as the excuses behind non-compliance to the directives have been found implausible by the Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar.
Sources told EXCELSIOR that vide Communication No.35258-79 dated January 21, 2016, the Registrar General of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had requested all the Principal District and Sessions Judges to upload the monthly work-done statements without sending the hard copies of the same on or before the 5th of every following month.
Thereafter, the direction was reiterated vide Communication No.5134/Sts dated May 16, 2016 by the office of Registrar General of J&K High Court. Through the second communication, it was brought to the notice of all the Principal District and Sessions Judges that technical team attached to the High Court has developed a module for online submission of monthly work-done statements by the District Courts.
For the convenience of the Principal District and Sessions Judges it was explicitly mentioned in the communication of May 2016 that module hosted on a server at High Court can be accessed through leased line and in the districts where there is no leased line, the concerned Principal District and Sessions Judge can get the statements uploaded from the concerned District NIC Centre, which generally remains functional even in difficult situations.
The objective behind on-line updation of data on monthly basis was to ensure timely availability of information for analysis both in the High Court of J&K and Supreme Court of India. However, it has been observed by the High Court that compliance to repeated directives in this regard remains far from satisfaction.
“The level of compliance to these directives was analyzed by the Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar recently and he has taken very serious note of majority of the Principal District and Sessions Judges soft-paddling on furnishing online monthly work done statements”, sources informed, adding “no major change has been witnessed in the earlier process of sending hard copies of the data and online updation of information mainly because of non-seriousness on the part of Principal District and Sessions Judges”.
Keeping in view the serious concern expressed by the Chief Justice, the Registrar General of J&K High Court, M K Hanjura has dashed a fresh Communication No. 15078-15100/Sts dated July 18, 2016 to all the Principal District and Sessions Judges seeking explanation for non-submission of statements through on-line updation of data on monthly basis.
“Since you have violated the order No.352458 dated January 21, 2016, therefore, you are asked to submit the explanation within a week’s time”, reads the communication of Registrar General addressed to all Principal District and Sessions Judges, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR. They have also been asked to ensure the compliance of the order and the communication of May 16, 2016 to the office of Registrar General without any fail.
According to the sources, due to non-submission of monthly work done statements to the High Court through on-line module, not only High Court is facing difficulty in chalking out strategies to minimize the pendency of cases in the courts in Jammu and Kashmir even the Supreme Court is finding it difficult to come up with the plans in this regard.
Moreover, due to slackness on the part of Principal District and Sessions Judges even the High Court of J&K is facing embarrassment from the Supreme Court, which is very much concerned about pendency of cases and wants the figures to be brought down by initiating multiple steps, sources added.
They further said that Chief Justice has found the excuses given by the Principal District and Sessions Judges till date vis-à-vis delay implausible especially in view of the fact that even utilization of District NIC Centre for updation of data has been allowed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the process of sending data on-line is aimed at saving the paper as also the work force at High Court which so far is being used in managing hard copies of work done statements. Moreover, the uploaded data cannot be modified after the cutoff date and this will ensure the district courts to send the credible data which after collation will be forwarded to the Supreme Court of India. Moreover, the module shows automatic upward or downward trend in percentage in pendency of cases.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here