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| Sagar to restore supremacy of judiciary! | | Nou sou chuhay khakar bili Hajj ko chali | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 20: The Law Minister, Ali Muhammad Sager Saturday talked about the government's measures to restore supremacy of judiciary. A crude joke indeed. Judiciary was supreme during Maharaja Hari Singh's autocratic rule. It lost its sheen the moment National Conference took over the reins of the state in 1947.
Maharani Tara Devi went out in her chauffer driven car on a pleasant May morning in1944. The driver was booked for a minor traffic offence and accordingly put on trial. The Maharani wrote a note to the presiding officer of the court requesting him to take a lenient view in the case. The magistrate informed Maharaja Hari Singh who tendered an unconditional and written apology to the magistrate.
The judiciary being a vibrant institution in autocracy should have further flourished in the `democratic and popular rule'. But the reverse happened. In the post partition era, the freedom of judiciary was slowly but surely strangled for petty political reasons.
A Halqa president of the ruling National Conference wrote a letter to a high court judge urging him not to hear a second case in a land dispute case from Budgam district. The learned judge raised the issue with Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah who wrote, "We are passing through very difficult times. It is an emergency. You do what you are told by my worker or vacate." The learned judge being a man of integrity submitted his resignation which was accepted.
Hundreds of examples can be cited here to prove how the state government especially during National Conference rule eroded the supremacy of judiciary. In July 2000, the state home department issued a written order directing the jail superintendents not to honour court orders seeking release of political prisoners. The High Court Bar Association has preserved the copy of the said order. The trend continues unabated.
Today the judiciary in the state has reached a stage where the presiding officers admit their helplessness in public. In 2008, Chief Judicial Magistrate Budgam while hearing the Jalil Andrabi murder case observed: "The relatives of Jalil Andrabi and the general public are justified in casting aspersions on the judiciary for its failure to dispense justice."
Today the Law Minister stated that the home department has been directed not to re-arrest prisoners whose detention under public safety act (PSA) has been quashed by the court. This is admission that the home department has been effecting such unwarranted, uncalled for and illegal arrests.
Sagar also talked about supremacy of judiciary. Sagar's `epoch' making statement on the floor of the legislative assembly evoked a reaction from a victim of Sher-e-Kashmir's emergency rule. Sarcastically he said: "Nou sou chuhay khakar bili Hajj ko chali."
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