Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 21: Finally, President of India, Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) have cleared the appointment of five new Judges of State High Court and warrants of appointment are likely to be issued within next few days. These Judges would be administered oath by the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice M M Kumar next week.
Highly placed sources told EXCELSIOR that State High Court has received a communication from the Union Law and Justice Ministry that President of India and PMO have cleared the appointment of five new Judges of the High Court namely 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, Senior High Court lawyers Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Tashi Rabstan (from Bar quota).
“Union Law and Justice Ministry would forward notification as well as warrants of appointment to the High Court as well as State Government within next few days following which Raj Bhawan would be approached for formal directions for administration of oath”, sources said, adding “generally Governor authorizes Chief Justice to administer oath to the Judges of the High Court, which in the case of five new Judges is likely next week”.
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 for the vacant posts. Later, the names were cleared by the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, Justice Altamas Kabir in November 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.
With the filling up of five vacant posts, the strength of Judges in State High Court will increase from existing 7 to 12 against the total sanctioned strength of 14.
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 because of shortage of Judges.
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