Kaul, Dhar, Gupta sworn-in; strength of HC goes up to 12

JAMMU: In a historic moment, three newly appointed Judges of the common High Court for the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh took oath of office, taking the strength of the Court to 12, its highest in a long time, and also providing the much-needed breather for the already weaker- in terms of numbers- higher judicial system of the union territory.
Chief Justice of J&K High Court, Justice Gita Mittal administered oath to Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul, Justice Sanjay Dhar and Justice Puneet Gupta as permanent Judges in a simple but impressive ceremony in her court at Jammu wing of the High Court.
President Ram Nath Kovind had issued warrant of appointment of these three judicial officers as judges on Friday, a day after Advocate Rajnesh Oswal had taken took oath as the Judge of the High Court.
On account of guidelines with regard to measures for containment of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the sitting Judges of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir joined the oath ceremony through Video Conference. The oath ceremony was live streamed on internet through webcast also.
Warrants of appointment of Judges were read by Registrar General (Officiating) High Court of Jammu and Kashmir Jawad Ahmed in English and Hindi.
Prior to their appointment as Judges of the High Court, Justice Vinod Chatterje Koul was posted as Chairman, Sales Tax Tribunal while as Justice Sanjay Dhar was Registrar General of the J&K High Court and Justice Puneet Gupta was discharging his judicial duties as Member, Special Tribunal, Jammu.
With these three new judges, the strength of the Court has now gone up to 12 against sanctioned 17 (including Chief Justice)-- 13 Permanent Judges and 4 Additional Judges, even as names of two more advocates-- Javed Iqbal Wani and Moksha Kazmi have been approved by the Supreme Court collegium for their elevation as the High Court Judges, but awaiting Centre’s clearance.
The other nine judges of the J&K High Court include Chief Justice Gita Mittal, Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Sanjeev Kumar Shukla, Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta, Justice Sindhu Sharma and Justice Rajnesh Oswal.
It is expected that the Union Law Ministry will soon clear the names of Advocate Moksha Kazmi Khajuria and Advocate Javed Iqbal Wani very soon, taking the number of judges in the J&K High Court to 14, and thus reducing the pendency in the court which currently stands at 75715 cases.