Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 14: With Supreme Court today vacating the stay the decks have been cleared for the appointment of newly selected District and Sessions Judges.
After hearing the arguments of the counsel for the petitioners and respondents, Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai vacated the stay granted on November 23.
“The State Government can make appointment of selected persons as District and Sessions Judges. The appointment, however, will be subject to the outcome of the writ petition”, the Bench said while directing the Registry to list the writ petition on February 4, 2013 for final orders.
As a sequel to this, the State Government is likely to issue appointment orders shortly.
The selection list was challenged in a Writ Petition titled Zubair Ahmed Mir and Others Versus State of Jammu and Kashmir and Others on various grounds.
The Writ Petition was filed by aggrieved candidates (lawyers practicing in various courts of Jammu and Kashmir) on the ground that those candidates who secured good marks in written examination were given very less marks in the interviews while as those who could not perform well in the written test made it through in interview for ‘obvious’ reasons.
They also submitted before the Supreme Court that the J&K Higher Judiciary Recruitment Rules, 2009 are contrary to the Supreme Court directions including those given in All India Judges Versus Union of India case. The petitioners have specifically challenged Rule 5 and 8 while terming them as ambiguous.
Moreover, the laid down guidelines state that there should be minimum three-member Selection Committee but there was only two member Selection Committee for the examination conducted in pursuance to Advertisement Notice 501 dated August 1, 2011, the petition said.
Around 215 candidates had appeared in Higher Judiciary (Direct Recruitment) Examination conducted by the State High Court. Though 13 posts were desired to be filled up and 15 candidates were short listed for interview only nine candidates were declared successful.
It is pertinent to mention here that out of the nine selected candidates, the names of two have already been withdrawn as one had been ‘inadvertently’ awarded excess marks in the examination while as another was found having close links with Pakistan trained militant.
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