Supreme Court to examine backdoor appointments made in J&K judicial establishments

The Supreme Court has decided to examine a plea for a direction to quash a large number of backdoor appointments of the relatives of judges and officials made in the judicial establishments in Jammu and Kashmir in contravention of right to equality and equal opportunity of employments of unemployed youth of the Union Territory.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli sought a reply from the Jammu & Kashmir High Court on administrative side on a plea by 'Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Forum' through advocate Raj Kishore Chaudhary.

The court on Friday asked the HC's Registrar General to file a response within four weeks, only upon verification by the Chief Justice.

The petition asked the court to order inquiry against those who made backdoor appointments of kith and kin and relatives in the different departments of the HC as well as subordinate 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," the plea submitted.

The plea also sought 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.

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.