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| High Court reserves order on impending Durbar Move | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 22: A Division Bench of J&K High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal reserved the order on impending Durbar Move.
It is worthwhile to mention here that on last date of hearing, Division Bench had observed that Darbar Move entails loss of several working days while the records are packed and therefore re-arranged after the Move takes place. It had directed the Secretary/Commissioner, Finance Department to place before it an estimation of the salary bill for one week of the staff which is involved in the Durbar Move and had sought details of other expenditure.
Today when the petition came-up for hearing, Division Bench observed that the tentative seven days salary expenditure incurred by Government Departments of the Annual Durbar Move has been placed department-wise which totals a whopping amount of Rs.1158.723 lakhs.
The Division Bench observed that before loading, anti-sabotage check of official records and vehicles is conducted. The vehicles are parked in the Civil Secretariat for night halt before moving in convoy and are secured. Senior level officers escort the convoy up to the destination.
The DB observed that Amit Gupta AAG that has filed additional report of the General Administration Department stating that “in view of the Government Order, all records of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are presently lying at Jammu office and have not been shifted”.
During the course of hearing Adv Monika Kohli submitted that as per the report dated 25th December 2018 the Government of India had advanced sum of Rs 20 crores for the purposes of digitisation of the record.
The above report highlights the fact that no digitisation of the administrative records has been affected.
During the course of hearing Amit Gupta, AAG submitted that in view of recent hike in the number of COVID-19 cases and the need for effective control of the same, the bi-annual Durbar Move arrangements have been reviewed.
The DB observed that the order dated 17th April 2020 manifests that the concerns observed by us in the order dated 10th April 2020 were justified.
Advocate Monika Kohli, Amicus Curiae that in the year 1872 the then Maharaja Ranbir Singh shifted the Durbar from Srinagar to Jammu as an arrangement for the winter months which arrangement has continued over the years. There has been no examination of the efficiency or utility of this arrangement which was commenced only on account of weather reasons and also drawn the attention of Court to the disclosure of the huge financial outlay, the manpower and enterprise involved. She suggested that ideally, both the Secretariats are required to be remain functional in both the places around the year.
The DB after hearing both the sides reserved the order. JNF |
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