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| Law Secy directed to appear in court as Govt "stops" publication of rule books, prompting pvt firms to sell them on high rates | | | Bharat Bhushan
JAMMU, Nov 3: Taking a serious note of the state law department's lackadaisical approach in filing reply to a petition that has sought a direction to the government to publish the latest and updated laws and rules, high court judge J P Singh has ordered law secretary to appear in person and explain the lapse.
"The issues raised in the petition are of public importance. The state law department, however, does not appear to have taken them seriously. For more than an year, no response has been filed to the petition which seeks a command to the state government to discharge its constitutional/legal obligation in publishing the latest and updated laws, rules, notifications and government orders at reasonable and
affordable price," he said in his judgement.
Observing that none had appeared for the government to contest the petition, Justice Singh issued a notice to the law secretary, directing him "to appear in person to explain the government's lapse". He directed to list the case on November 6 next. The court directive came Thursday in a petition filed by advocate Anmol Sharma through advocate Anil Sethi under article 226 of the constitution of India read with section 103 of the constitution of J&K.
On July 14, 2011, deputy law secretary Muzaffar Ahmad had appeared before the court of Justice Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain and stated that law department had already published two volumes of the J&K laws, while three others were to be released very shortly. The court had then directed to send copies of the petition to the state law secretary for a reply.
It has been alleged in the petition that the government has purposely, or for some extraneous reasons abdicated its functions and allowed certain private publishers to make accessible to its subjects the
latest and updated publication of all the existing laws, rules, notifications, bylaws and government orders at very high rates.
It could be due to the alleged connivance of certain publishing units with those who were responsible to make available rule books to a lawyer, or any other person at reasonable rates. The state government,
being the author of all these rules and notifications, was under obligation to provide its citizens the law books to keep them abreast of the latest developments in the field, the petition said.
While Ranbir government press (RGP) had practically become defunct for this purpose, other branches of the state were also taking no interest in publishing the updated laws. The RGP allegedly stopped the
publication of statutory laws, rules and notifications about two decades back for no plausible reason, it added.
Since RGP is also a respondent in the case, its general manager Aijaz Akhoon submitted a written reply to the court some time back, saying his department's function was only to print laws, rules and official
orders as per government demand.
He said RPG had a few years back published seven volumes of J&K laws as per the requisition of law department. He also gave a detailed account of the law volumes which were being printed by RPG at the time of filing his reply.
The petition said, while nine volumes of JK Laws cost Rs 900, these were being sold by private players for Rs 12,500. The rate list of a private publisher, which has his office at Rehari Colony, was also
submitted to the court. As per this list, the cost of books was so high that law students and others could not afford to buy them, the petition added, seeking a direction to the government to resume their publication. |
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