SRINAGAR: The Collegium of the Supreme Court of India has recommended four lawyers and a judicial officer be appointed as judges of the J&K High Court. These include Rashid Ali Dar, Wasim Sadiq Nargal, Nazir Ahmad Beig and Sindhu Sharma, informed sources told Kashmir Life.
With the appointment of four judges, the strength of the judges in the high court will go to 14. The sanctioned strength of the High Court is 17 judges.
The penal of five names were recommended by the then Chief Justice of J&K High Court in August 2017. However, the Collegium has not recommended the name of Showkat Ahmad Makroo saying it can wait and has been deferred.
The Collegium of the Supreme Court comprises the Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and judges J. Chelameswar ), and Ranjan Gogoi.
Barring Rashid Ali Dar, who retired as a senior judge earlier, all the persons recommended to the High Bench are senior advocates.
The Collegium considers merits of every person who is nominated to the bench. It includes their personal profile, capacity, age, income and almost every material which is on record. Usually, the Chief Minister and the governor of the state are on board. In this case, all the five were invited for an interaction by the collegium, sources said
In Rashid Ali Dar’s case, the Collegium has upheld the fact that at the time of the vacancy, he was below the age that is required for the elevation to the High Court. Dar retired as Principal District and Sessions Judge in December 2014. A well-respected judge, Dra has been very popular with his bar.
The recommendation is awaiting the approval of the government following which the President will issue warrants of appointments. They will function as additional judges forth years.
Advocate Sindhu Sharma is presently Assistant Solicitor General of India in J&K High Court, Jammu Wing and she was the first lady Advocate of State to be appointed as Assistant Solicitor General of India.
Advocate Wasim Sadiq Nargal is presently Senior Additional Advocate General in the Jammu Wing of the High Court.
The 10 judges of the High Court include Justice R Sudhakar Acting Chief Justice, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice Ali Mohd Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal, Justice Sanjeev Kumar, Justice M K Hanjura and Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta.
