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| Cabinet Meeting: Resentment Brewing Against Congress | | Judiciary VS Executive | | Neha
JAMMU, Jan 1: It was because of the positive intervention of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court that the 30-year-old Lawyers' strike ended leading to the resumption of normal functioning in the courts across the state on December 24. Actually, the High Court had taken a suo motto notice of the strike with the Registrar General of the High Court submitting to the Chief Justice a detailed note on the circumstances leading to the Lawyers' strike, as also to massive Jammu bandh on December 20 - bandh organized on the call of B S Slathia-led Bar Association Jammu (BAJ) and supported by one and all in the province. It was this note which took the shape of PIL, which was heard by the Special Bench of the High Court on December 23. The Special Bench directed the state government not to issue SRO under which powers of registration were to be transferred from courts to revenue officials and asked the striking lawyers to resume work in the interest of general public. The Special Bench heard both the parties - government and lawyers - on December 28 and fixed a new date for hearing after two months.
The people were expecting that the government would take cognizance of their mood and the circumstances which made the lawyers struck work on November 25 and withdraw its order, which had been described by many as an "onslaught on the independence of judiciary" as well as a "deliberate move to promote corruption and enable land grabbers and land mafia to get their illegal land transactions legalized". But it did not happen. What happened was to the contrary. The state government stuck to its stand overlooking the fact that it was the High Court that had intervened taking into account the adverse impact of the strike on justice delivery system. It was not an ordinary initiative. It was an extraordinary and well-conceived initiative.
The stand taken by the government on the PIL has not been taken kindly either by the lawyers or by the people. In fact, resentment is brewing in Jammu following what the state government said through Advocate General on December 28 while defending the government order. The most striking aspect of the situation as it has been developing post December 28 is that the people of Jammu are holding the Congress ministers, especially Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla, responsible for the government's hard stand on the issue, saying "they and their other colleagues in the Cabinet are not asserting their authority". In fact, the radicals among them are describing the decision of the state government as the "Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla's new year's gift to the people bemoaning that he was one of a few Congress leaders who had gone against the party high command in 2008 and joined the Amarnath struggle".
It is time for the Congress ministers to introspect and devise a methodology calculated to win over the lawyers and the people. The best course for them would be to make the government review its stand on the controversial decision in the Cabinet meeting to be held tomorrow. It would be better if they act before it is too late. They know what the Jammu psyche means. Their plus point is that the JKPCC president has openly said that "as a common person I am opposed to the decision".
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