Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Apr 10: Supreme Court collegium has recommended three names to the Union Law Ministry for appointment as High Court Judges of Jammu and Kashmir.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR, “the SC collegium comprising Chief Justice of India, Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Jasti Chelamesar met on April 7 and discussed all the nine names, which had been recommended by the J&K High Court authorities”, adding, “only three names – M K Hanjura, Sanjay Kumar Gupta and S K Shukla were cleared in the meeting and the remaining names were rejected”.
Subsequently, sources said, “the file containing all details of consultations held by Chief Justice with his colleagues has now been forwarded to the office of Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and as per convention the Law Ministry would need to forward the same to the office of President within three weeks.”
“If approved by the office of President, the strength of High Court Judges in Jammu and Kashmir would increase to 12 as presently there are only nine Judges including the Chief Justice” , sources pointed out.
Sources said, “the SC collegium had held multiple meetings to clear the pending recommendations from collegiums of different High Courts after the Central Government had assured that no obstructions will be created in their proposals. The proposals would be allowed to go through notwithstanding the fact that differences still persist between the collegium and Centre over some clauses of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which guides appointments to the higher judiciary”.
“The collegium had cleared nearly 43 recommendations from several High Courts, which were pending for its approval since early last year”, sources asserted.
It is pertinent to mention here that M K Hanjura is presently serving as Presiding Officer of Food Safety Appellate Tribunal. Earlier, he had also been appointed as Member (J) of National Company Law Tribunal.
Sanjay Kumar Gupta is presently serving as Principal District and Session Judge Jammu while as Advocate S K Shukla has been practicing in High Court for the past several years.
The sanctioned strength of the J&K High Court is 17 Judges including Chief Justice, but presently there are only nine Judges. These included Justice R Sudhakar, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice Ali Mohd Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal and Justice Bawa Singh Walia besides Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed.
As per the existing Memorandum of Procedure, the proposal for appointment of a High Court Judge has to be initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court. However, if the Chief Minister desires to recommend the name of any person he or she can forward the same to the Chief Justice for his consideration.
Similarly, a copy thereof is also endorsed to the Chief Justice of India and the Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs to expedite consideration. The Chief Justice of India in consultation with the two senior most Judges of the Supreme Court, forms his opinion in regard to a person to be recommended for appointment to the High Court.
The Chief Justice of India and the collegium of two Judges of the Supreme Court also take into account the views of the Chief Justice of the High Court and of those Judges of the High Court, who have been consulted by the Chief Justice as well as views of those Judges in the Supreme Court who are conversant with the affairs of that High Court.
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