Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 14: In a petition regarding dearth of staff at various levels in High Court and District Courts besides pay anomaly in respect of officers and staff and promotional avenues to Law Graduate Readers, a Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Sindhu Sharma has directed the Commissioner/Secretary Finance Department to file Action Taken Report or appear in person on next date of hearing.
“The proposal regarding creation of posts in the Phase-1 is stated to be pending consideration before the Commissioner/Secretary, Finance Department as such Deputy AG K D S Kotwal is directed to update the status of the same by filing Action Taken Report”, the DB said and made it clear that in case needful is not done by or before next date of hearing Commissioner/ Secretary, Finance Department shall appear in person along with the records for rendering necessary assistance in passing further appropriate orders.
On the last date of hearing—-29.08.2022, Achal Sethi, Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, who was present in person, had submitted before the court that the Government is ready to create posts in terms of the High Court proposal, however, it is not possible to get all the posts sanctioned in one go and the Government is ready to sanction the posts in two phases in terms of the meeting dated 04.05.2022.
Accordingly, Law Secretary was directed to file a detailed affidavit in this regard within two weeks but the said affidavit has not been filed, rather an application bearing CM No 5150/2022 has been filed whereby Law Secretary seeks to withdraw the assurance given by him contending that no such assurance/submission was made by him before the court and inadvertently the same has been reflected in the order, which he seeks to be recalled/modified.
Law Secretary has formed the basis of the application upon Jammu and Kashmir Transaction of Business Rules, 2019 and orders of delegation issued from time to time and urged that the power of creation of the posts vests with the Administrative Council that too after prior concurrence of the Finance Department. Similar submission was made by AAG Amit Gupta in support of the application.
“The averments made in the application reveal that the Government is committed to provide the staff and to take all effective steps to augment any requirement of the courts to reduce the pendency and expedite the delivery of justice, which in itself, if taken on face value, is nothing else, but, an assurance of the Government to this court”, the DB said, adding “otherwise also, Law Secretary in every meeting on administrative side had, on behalf of the Government and in presence of the representatives of the Finance Department, assured for providing the staff at the earliest, though this assurance remained on papers only for the last more than eight years and one can easily understand the intention of the representatives of the Government for filing such applications time and again”.
“It seems that such representatives of the Government are trying to drive the courts as per their own wishes least bothering that there is dearth of the staff, which is hampering the functioning of the courts besides leading to increase in pendency”, the DB said, adding “Government through Law Secretary was assuring this court that the required steps have been initiated to provide staff necessary for reducing the pendency and expediting the delivery of justice. Therefore, it would hardly make any difference in case the word “assures” prefixed to the name of the Law Secretary in the order dated 29.08.2022 is recalled or modified. Thus, there is no need for modification of order dated 29.08.2022″.
“It has also been submitted by AAG Amit Gupta that Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has already taken up the matter with the Finance Department for concurrence of the proposal of the High Court for creation of posts in Phase-1. However, the communication has not been placed on record. So, the Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs shall place the communication on record besides filing affidavit in terms of the order dated 29.08.2022 positively by or before next date of hearing”, the DB directed.
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