NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on a petition for a direction to quash a large number of backdoor appointments of the relatives of judges and officials made in the judicial establishments, in violation of right to equality and equal opportunity of employments of thousands of unemployed youth.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued notice to the High Court on administrative side on a writ petition filed by 'Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Forum' through advocate Raj Kishore Chaudhary.
The court asked the HC's Registrar General to file a response within four weeks, after getting it verified from the Chief Justice.
The plea sought a direction to conduct an inquiry against those who made backdoor appointments of kith and kin and who got benefited by usurping jobs at various wings of the judiciary.
"Any judicial officer or a functionary, if associated with administrative work, at any point of time, is established to have processed, approved or sponsored any backdoor or unfair appointment must be held guilty of judicial misconduct and proceeded against under law," it said.
It also prayed for a direction to the HC's Registrar General, Union Territory government, the Director of J&K Judicial Academy and J&K Legal Services Authority against making any further appointment to various posts without any public notice.
"The ratio of unemployment in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir even after separating Ladakh Region from the erstwhile state has considerably increased and gone to 25%. Thus the system cannot, should not tolerate any backdoor appointment or any appointment by unfair means or by conferring special concessions upon some particular class of officers or officials," the plea said.
It further contended hundreds and thousands of unemployed youth many of whom are carrying professional course degrees including BCA, MCA who had a right to consideration against E-Court Staff, had the posts been advertised.
It also claimed there are hosts of daily wagers working in various courts for the last more than a decade who have not been regularised. Only those somehow close to the officers in the High Court has been considered for regularisation, it alleged.
The petitioner-organisation also named several senior officials as well as judges whose, wife, sons and daughters and other relatives, who got appointed without any open recruitment process.
The petition claimed, according to the information, the recent appointees in E Courts Mission are directly or indirectly related to various members of the establishment including Shabir Ahmad Malik, the then Coordinator, Raja Shujat Ali Khan, Haq Nawaz Zargar, Mohammad Yousuf Wani, M K Hanjoora etc.
"It is not only about the E-Court staff appointed from the backdoor but right from 2007 onwards all the appointments either made on adhoc level or through advertisements is surrounded by suspicious circumstances," the plea claimed.
The petitioner claimed illegal favours were conferred upon various officers by adjusting their relatives in the department which included about five relations of retired Justices Bashir Ahmad Kirmani, and others of Abdul Rashid Bhat, Ghulam Mohi Ud Din Dar, Abdul Rashid Bul Bul, Showket Ahmad Qadri, Tariq Ahmad Mota, Naseeb Singh, Tassaduq Hussain, Ghulam Nabi (Private Secretaries), Mohammad Yaseen (Registrar Adm), Haroon Ahmad Dar, Gowhar Majeed Dalal, Farooq Ahmad Bhat and many more.
Two sons and one daughter of ex-president of the High Court staff Association also came to be appointed, it claimed.
"It is not only about the staff of the High Court and Subordinate Courts but it is true with the staff appointed in state judicial academy and legal service offices across the UT of J&K. In state judicial academy daughter of a sitting functionary stands appointed directly as Gazetted Officer, rules reportedly relaxed facilitating her appointment and then merging the seniority of judicial academy staff with the high court making posts inter-transferable," it alleged.
Some persons have been reemployed in the judicial academy from time to time which included Jagdish Raj, Abdul Gani Khan, Abdul Hamid Khan etc. Abdul Hamid Khan, for unknown reasons, has become the greater beneficiary as his daughter and daughter-in-Law stood appointed in the department. As regards legal service offices, 12 kith and kin of staff members, drivers and even some protocol officer were adjusted. Of late, wife of sitting C.J.M Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Bhat was also appointed, it claimed.
"The situation is alarmingly detrimental to the public policy, more so when third generation of in service establishment staff has already joined the department," the plea said.
One Ali Mohd Bhat was an orderly, got his all three sons appointed Department and recently, one of his grandsons has also entered the Department due to the blessings of Hasnain Masoodi. Likewise, Abdul Rashid Bhat retired AO got all the three sons recruited in the Department due to blessings of Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Mohd Yaqoob Mir, it further claimed.
Mir and his brother facilitated recruitment of their relations, subordinates and orderlies. It is shocking to note that Mohd Yousuf Wani, a serving Sessions Judge, got his own brother appointed in the High Court staff and his own son as orderly. "In such a situation what is left for the general public...no individual or a person has a right to occupy the public office without being selected and appointed in accordance with the procedure established by law," it claimed.
The procedure has to be fair and in accordance with the constitutional policy enshrined under the Article 14 and 16 of Constitution of India, the NGO added.
