On ‘appointed day’, along with Lt Governor, CJ, Judges, PSC Chairman to take fresh oath

Zafar Choudhary. Updated: 10/16/2019 10:20:00 AM

JAMMU: With barely fifteen days left for formal transition of Jammu and Kashmir from State to Union Territory, arrangements are being made for fresh oath of the Governor, to be called Lieutenant Governor thereafter, Chief Justice and other Judges of the High Court as well as Chairperson of the Public Service Commission.

As Jammu and Kashmir follows the oath of the Constitution of India, the first time in seven decades, the Chief Justice of the newly shaping up Union Territory could be the first dignitary to be sworn in of 31 October. Justice Geeta Mittal is the current Chief Justice who is earlier holding the officer as per the oath of Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir which has now been rendered irrelevant.

The Chief Justice could then administer oath to the Lieutenant Governor and who will subsequently administer oath to the Judges and other constitutional authorities, such as Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission. But the question before legal experts and transition authorities is that who would administer oath to the Chief Justice?

Source suggest that the President of India could nominate a Judge of the Supreme Court of India to administer oath to the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court to initiate the process of swearing in.

Following the change on constitutional and administrative status of Jammu and Kashmir affected by the Parliament of India on 5 and 6 August 2019, the President of India had fixed 31 October as ‘appointed day’ for formal transition of the State to Union Territory. The administration of incumbent Governor Satya Pal Malik has already asked the top bureaucracy to remain available in Srinagar on 31 October even as the Civil Secretariat and other offices connected to Darbar Move shut down in Srinagar for the biennial move to Jammu, as part of over a century old tradition, on 25 October.

As per tradition practice in past no major official events take place during the transition period which marks a ten-day long recess between the last Friday of October and first Monday of November. However, any urgent events, during this period, including swearing in government or ministers have always taken place in Jammu, the winter capital where the offices re-open on first Monday of November after shutting down in Srinagar on the last Friday of October.

Thirty-first October happens to the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, the ideological inspiration for the current leadership of ruling Bhartiya Janta Party. A leader of the Congress party, Patel was the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the independent India. Patel, the BJP believes, was capable of integrating Jammu and Kashmir with Union of India without according special constitutional status if Prime Minister Nehru had allowed him.

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