Five judges appointed simultaneously first time in history of State’s judiciary

Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Mar 7: In what could be termed as historic event for State’s judiciary, five newly appointed Judges of Jammu and Kashmir High Court will be administered oath by Chief Justice M M Kumar tomorrow at 5 pm at the High Court Complex here.
It will be for the first time in the State that five Judges will be simultaneously appointed to the High Court taking the strength of Court Judges from seven to 12.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the preparations for the oath taking ceremony of the new Judges were started by the High Court authorities immediately after Governor, N N Vohra officially communicated to the Chief Justice office authorizing the latter for administering oath to newly appointed Judges.
“The warrants for appointment of the new Judges were signed by President, Pranab Mukherjee yesterday after he concluded his three-day visit to Bangladesh aimed at strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries”, sources said.
“The formal notification for the appointment of the new Judges was issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice today. The notification as well as warrants of appointment were formally communicated to the High Court authorities as well as State Government today and thereafter, a final consent was obtained from the Raj Bhavan”, sources emphasized.
Five new Judges of the High Court, who will be administered oath included Bansi Lal Bhat, Special Judge CBI Court, Jammu, Janak Raj Kotwal, Member J&K Special Tribunal, Jammu (both from Judges quota), Senior Additional Advocate General, Ali Mohammad Magray and senior High Court lawyers Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Tashi Rabstan (from Bar quota).
Official sources stated that it is for the first time in the history of judiciary in the State that five Judges have been appointed to the High Court simultaneously.
EXCELSIOR had exclusively reported on February 21 issue that Mr Mukherjee and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had earlier cleared the appointment of five new Judges of State High Court and warrants of appointment are likely to be issued within next few days.
The exercise to fill up the vacant posts of Judges was set in motion in the month of June, 2012 when the Collegium of the State High Court headed by the then Chief Justice had recommended the names of two Judges and five Advocates for the vacant posts.
However, retired High Court Judge Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain’s younger brother and a prominent law publisher Advocate Hakeem Ishtiyaz Hussain died a day after his name was cleared and recommended by the Collegium of State High Court.
Later, the names were cleared by the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, Justice Altamas Kabir in November 3 last year following which the file was forwarded to the Union Law Ministry for seeking the consent of Prime Minister’s Office and President of India.
It would be after a long time that J&K High Court would be having 12 Judges against the sanctioned strength of 14 including the Chief Justice. The sanctioned strength includes 9 Permanent Judges and five Additional Judges. Presently, there are seven Judges of the State High Court including Chief Justice.
These are Chief Justice M M Kumar, Justice Virender Singh, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir, Justice Jai Pal Singh, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Hasnain Massodi.
The filling up of five vacant posts of High Court Judges would go a long way in bringing down pendency of cases, sources said, adding presently thousands of cases are pending in Jammu and Srinagar wings of the High Court due to shortage of Judges.

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