By Mohinder Verma
DAILY EXCELSIOR, 04-JAN-2012
JAMMU, Jan 3: Notwithstanding much thrust on clearance of pendency by organizing Lok Adalats in different
parts of the State, over 2.77 lakh cases are still pending in various courts including both the wings of State High Court and clearing entire back-log is a matter of concern for the judiciary.According to the official data, out of total 2,77,914 cases pending in different courts across the State, 81027 are pending for disposal in both the wings of the High Court only. Of these 39087 are the main cases while as 41940 are miscellaneous
To settle such a large number of cases, there are presently only seven Judges in the High Court against the sanctioned strengthen of 14 including Chief Justice. These are Justice F M Ibrahim Kallifulla, Chief Justice of the High Court, Justice Virender Singh, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir, Justice J P Singh, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Hasnain Masoodi.
Earlier, the number of High Court Judges was eight but due to transfer of Justice Sunil Hali to Allahabad High Court the vacancy has risen to seven, said the details furnished by the office of Registrar General of State High Court, Jammu in response to an application moved under J&K Right to Information Act, 2009 by RTI activist Raman Sharma.
About the reasons for not appointing the sanctioned number of High Court Judges, which is imperative for early clearance of pending cases, the official said, "the process of elevation against vacancies is under the consideration. The sanctioned strength of the High Court will be filled as and when elevation process is completed".
The situation vis-à-vis pendency of cases is more worrisome in the Districts Courts, Sub-Judge Courts, Munsiff Courts as till ending June 2011, a total of 1,96,887 cases were pending in these courts. Of these, 72121 were civil and 124766 criminal cases, the official information said.
In the District Courts, a total of 42033 cases were pending, which included 22217 civil and 19816 criminal. Similarly, a total of 65985 cases including 23280 civil and 42705 criminal were pending in the Sub-Judge Courts. A total of 88869 cases including 26624 civil and 62245 criminal were pending in Munsiff Courts.
The Subordinate Judiciary is also facing shortage of Judges albeit not much. As against sanctioned strength of 68 District Judges inclusive of 2 ex-cadre posts, the District Judges are in place on 60 posts.
In response to a question, the PIO of Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs said that District Judges are being appointed on the recommendation of the High Court and the vacant posts would be filled up only on the receipt of any proposal from the High Court in this regard. He, however, said that presently no such proposal is pending before the Law Department.
"Keeping in view the pendency of cases, it is imperative to speed up the process of filling up of vacant posts of Judges in the High Court as well as Subordinate Judiciary", official sources stressed, adding "every effort must be made to fill this gap so that pendency of cases is cleared without any further delay".
From Jehangir Rashid
Daily Excelsior 22-Nov-2011
SRINAGAR, Nov 21: Kashmir University has spent huge amount of money on the renovation of the residence of the Vice Chancellor while a whooping amount of over ` 15 crore has been paid to the Power Development Department (PDD) as electricity tariff.
The details were made public by the Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO), University of Kashmir in response to an RTI application filed by Raman Sharma. In his RTI, Sharma had sought details about the expenditure made by the University since January 2005.
The APIO said that ` 35 lakhs have been spent on the renovation of Vice-Chancellor's lodge during 2008-09. "This money was used in renovation of bathrooms by way of plumbing and sanitary, renovation of kitchen and shelters, painting CGI roofing and allied works and renovation of different electric works."
He said ` 1,40,675 has been spent on the renovation of the Vice-Chancellor's secretariat during 2008-09 and 2009-10. Referring to the other expenses made by the University authorities, the APIO said that an amount of ` 15,11,59,073 has been spent as booked expenditure of the electricity charges from 2004-05 to 2010-11.
In his reply, the APIO has said that 36 vehicles were purchased by the university authorities from January 1, 2005 to October 31, 2011. He said the value of total purchases stands at more than ` 2 crore. He said that maximum number of vehicles were purchased in 2008 with the number being 14.
"During 2005, three vehicles were purchased while as identical number of vehicles were purchased during 2006. During 2007, eight vehicles were purchased while as the number of vehicles purchased during 2008 stands at 14. In 2009, seven vehicles were purchased while as one vehicle was purchased during 2010," said the APIO in his reply.
The APIO has also provided information about the booked expenditure with regard to TA/DA paid to Vice-Chancellors, telephone charges, advertisement expenses, computer equipments, scholarships/ fellowships, advertisement of Directorate of Distance Education and late fee from 2004-05 to 2010-11. He said the different departments of the varsity spent around ` 4 crores. More than two crores were spend on the holding of seminars, workshops and conferences from January 1, 2005 to October 31, 2011.
Meanwhile, Vice-Chancellor, University of Kashmir, Professor Talat Ahmad has ordered that the transport fleet of the varsity would no longer ferry the heads of departments to the university from their home and vice-versa as the fuel charges of these vehicles have touched new heights.
The Vice-Chancellor has kept at his disposal four vehicles that would be used for ferrying the HODs at the time of dire emergency. This move was necessitated following the revelation that 36 vehicles were purchased by the varsity authorities during the six years (2005-2010) and there was huge fleet of over 100 vehicles in the varsity.
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