Proposal sent to Lok Bhawan, SC
Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Apr 17: The collegium of High Court of J&K and Ladakh headed by Chief Justice Arun Palli has recommended 11 names to fill vacant posts of High Court Judges.
Reliable sources told Excelsior, the list included names of 10 advocates from the Bar quota and one name from the Bench quota. It is for the first time that names of such a large number of appointments have been processed in a single exercise by the High Court.
“Chief Justice held extensive consultation with the senior-most Judges – Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sindhu Sharma about all the probable candidates before sending the final list to J&K Lok Bhawan with a copy to Supreme Court collegium and Union Law Ministry”, sources said adding, “the process was going on since the past several days and focus was on giving representation to all regions and different sections of society”.
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Sources said, “the list from the Bar quota included Vishal Sharma (presently Assistant Solicitor General of India, Jammu), Namgyal Wangchuk, Jahangir Iqbal Ganai, Pawan Kumar Kundal, Tahir Majid Shamshi (Deputy Solicitor General of India, Srinagar), Tabasum Zafar, Anupam Raina, Vikram Kumar Sharma, Amit Gupta (former Additional Advocate General) and Pranav Kohli”, adding, “senior-most judicial officer, Yash Paul Bourney who is presently member of J&K Tribunal has also been recommended for elevation”.
“To give representation to women advocates, name of Tabasum Zafar from Kashmir has been recommended and if accepted, this will mark the first instance of a woman from Kashmir making it to the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh”, sources asserted.
It is pertinent to mention that High Court is presently functioning with 13 Judges against a sanctioned strength of 25, leaving 12 vacancies including 10 from bar quota and the present exercise is aimed at filling these vacancies.
Presently, there are 13 Judges including Chief Justice Arun Palli. These included Justice Sanjeev Kumar, Justice Sindhu Sharma, Justice Rajnesh Oswal, Justice Sanjay Dhar, Justice Mohammad Akram Chowdhary, Justice Rahul Bharti, Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi, Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal, Justice Rajesh Sekhri, Justice Mohammad Yousuf Wani, Justice Sanjay Parihar and Justice Shahzad Azeem.
On March 23, this year Justice Javed Iqbal Wani had superannuated reducing the strength of Judges to 13.
In November 2024, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice in consultation with Chief Justice of India had increased the sanctioned strength of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh from 17 to 25 Judges. This new strength consists of 19 permanent Judges and 6 additional Judges, aimed at addressing rising case pendency.
As per the precedence, Supreme Court collegium will take decision on the recommendation of the J&K High Court and then forward the names to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice for clearance. Later, the list will be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office for final approval of the Union Government and thereafter to the President of India for issuance of the warrant of appointment.
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