Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 11: On the call of J&K High Court Bar Association Jammu, the lawyers abstained from working in the High Court, Subordinate Courts and all other Tribunals to protest against the Government notification whereby jurisdiction to deal with Debts Recovery cases of Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been transferred to Chandigarh Bench.
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Later, M K Bhardwaj, Senior Advocate and President of the Bar along with other office bearers namely Mohinder Pal Singh Pali, Vice President, Surjeet Singh Andotra, General Secretary, Aditya Sharma, Joint Secretary and Amandeep Singh, Treasurer, while addressing a press conference, said, “it is a calculated move/ design on part of the Government to cause undue inconvenience to the public in general and advocates in particular”.
“Government has already transferred the registration work to the Revenue officers and the Revenue offices are located at far off and scattered places”, he said, adding “earlier the registration work was with the Judicial Officers in court premises but due to shifting of the registration work the members of the Bar and public at large are facing inconvenience and difficulties”.
Bhardwaj further said that at present there is no Consumer Commission & Consumer Forum working in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir and Government has not constituted and notified the same till date. “There is no information about the pending cases and the files”, he said, adding “for the convenience of the Advocates and public at large, the location of the Central Administrative Tribunal, registration work and other Tribunals must be shifted in the court premises under one roof”.
He further said that the Advocates who are working in the far flung area /courts would also face difficulties in contesting their Debt Recovery cases at Chandigarh and this decision will also affect the public at large.
“It has come to our notice that there is no regular Presiding Officer for the last nearly two years at Chandigarh and members of the Debt Recovery Tribunal Bar Association Chandigarh are on strike against the non-availability of Bench at Chandigarh”, he said and urged the Government to revoke the Notification dated 10-09-2021 within a period of 15 days and also redress other genuine grievances failing which the Bar Association will have no other option except to fight against the anti-public decisions.