Centralised selection of judicial officers: In J&K, full court to take final view soon

@ sahil Rasgotra

JAMMU: A full court of Jammu and Kashmir High Court will soon take a view on the recommendations of the Supreme Court on centralised selection process of judicial officers on the pattern of All India Services like Indian Administrative Services and Indian Police Service.
In view of critical deficit of numbers and quality of officers -a nationwide issue -the Supreme Court has been keen for an all-India judicial service for lower courts in the country even as the Centre has recently suggested to the Supreme Court an examination on the lines of the National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses to select judicial officers at that level.
In both the cases -whether all-India judicial service or NEET type centralised exam -Jammu and Kashmir will once again find itself caught in its special status quagmire.
The extension of uniform central services has always remained a political issue in Jammu and Kashmir as the IAS had also to be introduced in the state much later and reluctantly. At present also Jammu and Kashmir enjoys special dispensation of 50:50 on All India Services to State Services as against 67:33 in other states. The Centre has been insisting on uniformity but the State has been has been forcefully pushing for further extension.
In this backdrop, the political opinion may be of interest even as at the present stage the question is purely between the Supreme Court and the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
In May this year, the Supreme Court had asked all the states to clear about their willingness to introduce the centralised selection mechanism for the appointment of Judicial Officers.
Total 15 states gave their nod while Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Gujarat cited some reservations to the proposal. Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab-Haryana and Guwahati High Courts have sought more time to submit their comments on introduction of the said proposal. Accordingly, the state high court was given the relaxation to file their comments on the next date of the hearing.
Talking to The News Now, Registrar General of Jammu and Kashmir High Court informed that the court has not reached a conclusive opinion yet. "The full court will soon take a view over the said proposal," said Sanjay Dhar, Registrar General, adding that there is no clarity upon when will it be decided.
Subordinate judiciary in Jammu and Kashmir is faced with the issue of huge backlog of criminal and civil cases. As per the latest figures that came out last year, there are 1, 24, 763 cases pending in district and other subordinate courts of the state. With only 220 judges in these courts across the different parts of the state, each judge is faced with 567 cases, on an average.
The situation is particularly worrying as these numbers have been on rise from past many years. The pending cases have registered a growth of 136% in past one decade as there were only 52720 cases in subordinate courts across state in 2006, thus justifying the concern of Supreme Court for a regular appointment of judicial officers in the subordinate courts.
It is worth mentioning here that the situation is equally grim across the country as there are 2.8 crore civil and criminal cases currently pending in district courts.
These courts are currently short of nearly 5,000 judicial officers and would need increasing the judicial manpower manifold up to the tune of seven times, to overcome the crisis by appointing about 15,000 more judges in the coming three years, as asserted by a report of Supreme Court.
Earlier last week, in a bid to dispel the apprehension that the proposal would affect the rules and regulations formulated by the states, the Supreme Court had assured that the selection process would remain the same and no tinkering with any state's rules or reservations would be done.
"Our endeavour is not to touch the federal structure, but we want to explore whether a singular agency can hold the examination for filling up the vacancies in lower judiciary in various states at regular interval," Chief Justice of India, Jutice J S Khehar had said.
He also said, "Nothing is touched so far as the eligibility, terms and conditions of the respective states are concerned. One advantage of that would be possibility of applying for more than one state having the same terms and conditions."
The bench comprising of Chief Justice of India had said this while posting the matter for hearing on July 27.