Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Tuesday reconstituted the Committee on Service Conditions of the District Judiciary and nominated new Administrative Judges for the districts of Baramulla and Samba following the superannuation of Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul.
According to orders issued by Registrar General M.K. Sharma, the reconstituted Committee on Service Conditions of the District Judiciary will comprise Justice Sanjay Dhar and Justice Mohd Akram Chowdhary as members. The Secretary to the Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Secretary, Law and Justice, Union Territory of Ladakh, have also been included in the panel.
The Registrar General has been designated as the Ex-Officio Secretary of the committee, while the Registrar (Rules) will function as the Presenting Officer. Retired District and Sessions Judge Pawan Dev Kotwal has been appointed as the Nodal Officer. The Chairperson has also been empowered to co-opt officers from the governments of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including Secretaries from the Home, Health, Personnel and Public Works departments, whenever matters concerning these departments are taken up for deliberation and implementation.
The order reconstituting the committee has been circulated to all concerned authorities, including judicial officers and government departments, for information and necessary action. The original committee had been constituted in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court issued on January 4, 2024, in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 643 of 2015, titled All India Judges Association vs Union of India & Others.
In a related development, the Chief Justice has nominated Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi as the Administrative Judge for District Baramulla and Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal as the Administrative Judge for District Samba. These appointments have been made in supersession of earlier orders to the extent they pertain to the respective districts.
