AG reviews progress on cases pending before High Court, Tribunals

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, June 6: Advocate General, J&K, D.C Raina today chaired an interactive session cum meeting to review progress on litigation cases pending before the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh besides Tribunals at Assembly Secretariat, Srinagar.
Secretary Law, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs, Achal Sethi, Director Litigation Kashmir, Special/Additional Secretaries of Administrative Departments and Government Counsels were present in the meeting.
Advocate General took stock of measures being initiated to further streamline the monitoring of litigations in the backdrop of Jammu and Kashmir Litigation Policy-2011 and the directives of Administrative Secretary of Union Law Ministry, the orders passed by the Administrative Council of Union Territory of J&K and also in light of valuable observations of Chief Justice with regard to ensuring better system of contesting the pending court cases.
He instructed the officers to meet their roles and responsibilities in true perspective as fixed and notified by the Law Department in respect of government. He asked the Counsels, Departmental Law Officers and other concerned to bring added efficiency and requisite reforms in litigation process. Besides, he emphasized the need of implementing the government policies and various directives issued in this regard in letter and spirit so as to minimize the litigations.
Advocate General exhorted upon the Law Officers, Government Counsels and officers to put in coordinated efforts to ensure timely filing of replies to avoid personal appearance of government officers and filing of contempt petitions by timely implementation of orders/rules on the subject matter. He also asked the concerned to ensure necessary assistance shall be provided to the Courts and no case should go in unattended.
Secretary, Achal Sethi, briefed about the steps being taken up by the government in ensuring proper coordination among various stake holders for optimum results. He also highlighted various reforms recently undertaken to reduce the litigations and overcome the difficulties for filing timely responses before the courts and implementation of the court directives.
After threadbare discussion on the subject, the meeting also received suggestions from the Government Counsels and Law Officers.