Stage set for appointment of 6 High Court Judges

Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Feb 6: Stage is set for appointment of six new Judges of State High Court as the file pertaining to them has reached Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the necessary notification is likely to be issued within a fortnight.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that the file for appointment of Judges had been forwarded by the Union Law Ministry to the Prime Minister’s office on January 31 this year. “Since then, the file has been lying with them and there is every likelihood that after necessary notings, the file will be sent to the Union Law Ministry again for issuance of notification in this regard within a fortnight”, sources added.
Sources elaborated that after Law Ministry comes up with the notification in this regard, the file will be forwarded to the office of President, Pranab Mukherjee for issuance of warrants of appointment for six Judges.
Earlier, on November 3 last year, the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, Justice Altamas Kabir cleared all the six names recommended by the State Government for filling up of six vacant posts in Jammu and Kashmir High Court. After the necessary clearance, the names were forwarded to the Union Law Ministry.
With the filling up of six vacant posts, the strength of Judges in State High Court will increase from existing 7 to 13 against the total sanctioned strength of 14.
“Presently, the shortage of six Judges in the High Court was also taking its toll on the working of judiciary in the State. While three Judges are operating from the summer capital, four of their colleagues were working from Jammu”, sources said.
It is imperative that the appointment order for six Judges be issued soon as senior High Court Judge Justice J P Singh will retire on April 6. Besides, Special Judge CBI, B L Bhat, whose name is among the list of newly recommended Judges, is also due to retire in April this year.
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 of two Judges and five Advocates for the vacant posts.
However, retired High Court Judge Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain’s younger brother and a prominent law publisher Advocate Hakeem Ishtiyaz Hussain died a day after his name was cleared and recommended by the Collegium of State High Court.
Thereafter, the six names were forwarded to the Chief Minister and Law Department and then to the Governor, who subsequently recommended the names to Supreme Court Collegium for its decision.
The names, which have been cleared for appointment as Judges of the State High Court are 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 namely Azhar-ul-Amin, Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Tashi Rabstan from Leh (from Bar quota).
It would be after a long time that J&K High Court would be having 13 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 six 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.
Recently, Chief Justice of State High Court, Justice M M Kumar in an exemplary initiative had formulated an Action Plan and fixed targets for disposal of pending cases. The Action Plan yielded encouraging results and for the first time in history of judiciary nearly 13,000 pending cases of different nature were disposed of in different Courts within a short span of 90 days.
Meanwhile, two senior Judges of the State High Court — Justice Sunil Hali and Justice Pramod Kohli are also due to retire soon. While Justice Sunil Hali will retire on February 21, Justice Pramod Kohli will attain superannuation on March 1 this year. After their retirement, the State will be entitled for appointment of two more Judges from the State’s quota.

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