J&K high court observes that justice dispensation system in the UT had been reduced to to a ‘cruel joke’
With over 6,000 contempt petitions pending, the Jammu and Kashmir high court lashed out at the UT administration for “ignoring” court orders.
The observations came in an order passed by justices Atul Sreedharan and Javed Iqbal Wani on Monday as the chief secretary Atal Dulloo and secretary, general administration department (GAD) failed to appear before the court through video conferencing to respond to a contempt case with court now summoning them to remain present in person on the next date of hearing on August 8.
The court criticised the administration for the “shocking scenario where the executive is ignoring the court orders” and “reducing the justice dispensation system in the UT to a cruel joke”.
The contempt petition against the administration was filed after it failed to implement an order passed by the court on August 10, 2023 regarding dispute over pay scales of a chief engineer and a superintending engineer. The court had held that Chief Engineer being a higher post than the Superintending Engineer will be legally entitled to higher pay scale.
“From the manner in which the UT government has conducted itself, it is clear that there is an absolute lack of sincerity of purpose on its part to comply with the order passed by this Court. It reflects a sorry state of affairs that exists in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir with regard to judicial proceedings and judicial orders,” the order said.
The court had directed the “contemnors” to join the proceedings through video conferencing at 2.30 pm on Monday inorder to obviate the inconvenience of personal appearance. The court said the secretary GAD did not join as he was on leave, the appearance of chief secretary did not take place. It has now asked all four to remain present in person before the court on the next date on August 8 or face action.
The court was also informed by the administration that a special leave petition (SLP) has been filed in the Supreme Court in the month of June 2024, against the principal order after a delay of 10 months.
“Upon checking the website of the Supreme Court, it appears that the special leave petition against the principal order was filed on 25.06.2024. There are seven defects identified by the Registry of the Supreme Court but not a single one has been cleared till date i.e., two months after filing the Special Leave Petition,” the order stated.
Commenting about the state of how the executive is ignoring the court orders, the court informed that the number of contempt petitions pending before the HC as on date was a little over 6,000.
“In other words, there are at least 6,000 litigants in the UT… who despite having orders in their favour are unable to savour the benefit of these orders… A few of these contempt matters are pending between ten to fifteen years and the cases pending between one to five years are the ones that run into thousands and has reduced the justice dispensation system in the UT to a cruel joke,” the justices said.
The court said a contempt case must be concluded ideally in three to five hearings, in which the order is complied with, or there is no need to comply with it as the superior court or the larger bench has stayed or set aside the principal order itself, or the contemnor is punished in accordance with law.
“This reflects a shocking scenario where the Executive is ignoring the orders passed by this court consistently with utter disdain, cocky that this court shall take no measures imperilling their liberty for their disobedience,” it said.
“The ‘couldn’t careless’ attitude of the executive gives an impression to this court that it has to resort to firm measures to ensure that the orders passed by this court and by other courts judicially inferior to the HC, are complied with in letter and spirit and are taken more seriously than the way it has been till date,” it said.
The court said it shall not hesitate to take “precipitate measures” but it was recording these observations so the “UT and the bureaucracy is put on guard that what has been happening till now with the orders of this Court shall no longer be tolerated”.
This is the second case in the past five days when the HC summoned any officers in contempt. An IAS officer – deputy commissioner Ganderbal Shyambir – appeared before the HC on Monday after the court had on Friday asked him to appear in person following chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Ganderbal referring the matter to the HC for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against the said officer.
