*Admn Committee takes serious note as SC awaits details
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 7: Several senior Judicial Officers of Jammu and Kashmir have been paying scant attention towards the directives of the State High Court regarding implementation of the resolutions adopted in the Chief Justices’ Conference held early this year despite the fact that Secretary General of Supreme Court is repeatedly sending communiqués seeking Action Taken Report (ATR) on the decisions taken in the country-level highest forum.
Sources in the High Court told EXCELSIOR that Chief Justices’ Conference held on April 22 and 23, 2016 took several important decisions vis-a-vis augmenting the infrastructure of Subordinate Courts, establishment of e-courts, speeding up disposal of cases to reduce the pendency, speeding up of trial, strengthening of Legal Aid Programmes like Alternate Dispute Resolution System, fast tracking of matters relating to crime against women, children, differently-abled persons, senior citizens, marginalized sections and expeditious disposal of corruption cases.
As much thrust was laid on evolving a mechanism for submitting progress reports to the Supreme Court on the implementation of resolutions by periodically updating feedback formats, an Administrative Committee comprising Chief Justice, N Paul Vasanthakumar, Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar was constituted.
Even a Mini-Secretariat comprising of Registrar General of High Court and Principal Secretary to the Chief Justice was established for tracking the progress made in the implementation of the resolutions adopted in the Chief Justices’ Conference, sources said.
Vide Communication No.14725-43/Sts dated July 4, 2016, the then Registrar General of J&K High Court M K Hanjura brought to the notice of all the Principal District and Sessions Judges of the State questionnaires received from the Secretary General, Supreme Court of India with the request to start collation of requisite information, sources said, adding the Principal District and Sessions Judges were also asked to send consolidated information of their respective courts as well as courts subordinate to them by or before July 10, 2016 so as to place the same before the Supreme Court well before the prescribed last date of July 20, 2016.
However, Principal District and Sessions Judges of Bandipora, Baramulla, Budgam, Ganderbal, Kargil, Kulgam, Pulwama, Ramban, Srinagar and Shopian have not furnished the requisite information to the High Court till date despite lapse of four weeks period, sources said, adding on the directions of the Administrative Committee, the present Registrar General of High Court, A K Koul has dashed a fresh communication to these Principal District and Sessions Judges asking them to furnish the information at the earliest.
“Treat the matter as most urgent so that High Court is able to transmit the information to the Secretary General of Supreme Court as desired”, reads the Communication No. 18593-603/Sts dated September 7, 2016.
According to the sources, the Administrative Committee headed by Chief Justice has taken serious note of dilly-dallying approach of these Judicial Officers as office of Secretary General of Supreme Court is constantly seeking the status of implementation of resolutions adopted in the Chief Justices’ Conference.
Besides other information, the Judicial Officers have been directed to furnish details vis-a-vis pendency of cases registered under Prevention of Corruption Act, cases relating to crime against women, senior citizens, marginalized sections, differently abled persons, number of under-trial prisoners in their respective jurisdiction, criminal cases pertaining to under-trial prisoners and pendency in subordinate courts.
As far as disposal of pending cases, the Chief Justices’ Conference resolution reads: “High Courts shall assign top most priority for disposal of cases which are pending for more than 5 years and the courts where arrears of cases pending for more than 5 years shall facilitate their disposal in mission mode. The High Courts shall progressively set a target of disposing of cases pending for more than 4 years and efforts shall be made for strengthening case-flow management rules”.
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