Srinagar: The Government of India has cleared two names for appointment as Judges of the J&K High Court and one among them is Sindhu Sharma, the sister-in-law of Union Minister Arun Jaitley.
The other is the former District and Sessions Judge, Rashid Ali Dar, sources said. Sharma is presently Assistant Solicitor General of India in J&K High Court Jammu Wing while Dar retired as Principal District and Sessions Judge Srinagar on November 20 last year.
“The file is presently in the office of President, Ram Nath Kovind and the warrants of appointment of Sindhu Sharma and Rashid Ali Dar are likely to be issued within few days,” the sources said.
They said names of Advocate Wasim Sadiq Nargal, who had served as Senior Additional Advocate General, and advocate Nazir Ahmed Beig have been dropped despite the Supreme Court Collegium having recommended them for appointment as judges in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
In a meeting, the Collegium of three senior-most judges, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices J. Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi had recommended advocates Wasim Sadiq Nargal, Nazir Ahmed Beig and Sindhu Sharma besides Judicial Officer Rashid Ali Dar as the judges of the high court.
The recommendations were made by the then Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court on 24 August last year in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues.
The sanctioned strength of the J&K High Court is 17 Judges including Chief Justice, but presently there are only 8 Judges. These included Justice Ali Mohd Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal, Justice Sanjeev Kumar Shukla, Justice M K Hanjura and Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta besides acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe.
Last month, the Supreme Court Collegium also recommended acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Gita Mittal for appointment as the next Chief Justice of the J&K High Court.
The office of Chief Justice for the J&K High Court has been lying vacant since March 15 this year after the retirement of Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed.
