Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU: Constituting a substantial chunk of the population in Jammu division, Muslim or the Sikh minority have never found a representation in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in its history of the last 88 years. While as the major share of judges and Chief Justices has gone to the Kashmir Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits and the Jammu Hindus, Mr Justice Tashi Rabstan is the first—and so far the last—judge of the JKHC who has been picked up from the Buddhist community or the entire Ladakh region in March 2013.
Of the 33 CJs, 10 have been Muslims. While as three of them – Mian Jalal-ud-din (1978-80), Mufti Baha-ud-din (1983) and Bashir Ahmad Khan (2007) – were Kashmiri Muslims, all the seven others were from different Indian States. In totality, even the Kashmiri Muslims, the largest majority in the State, retain the top chair for less than 3 years in 88 years. Mian Jalal-ud-din is the only Kashmiri Muslim who functioned as CJ of JKHC for more than one year. He held the top position from February 15, 1978, to February 22, 1980.
While as Mufti Baha-ud-din was transferred from J&K by Indira Gandhi’s Congress government at the Centre without regard to then Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah’s threats and protests in August 1983, within six months of his taking over as 12th CJ of JKHC in March 1983, Justice Bashir Khan functioned as CJ from January 25 to March 31 in 2007. However, some Kashmiri Muslim judges officiated as CJ for brief intervals.
Among the 71 judges of JKHC, 27 were Muslims-23 from the Valley. All others were brought in from different Indian States. Three of them-S.S. Kang (1989-93), T.S. Doabia (1997-2003) and Virender Singh (2007-14) – were Sikhs from Punjab.
The Jammu Hindus got different occasions to function as CJ or judge in JKHC. The Jammu Muslims, who constitute more than 30% of the population in the region and have around 500 of them as members of the 3,000-strong High Court Bar Association, Jammu, did never get a chance. Sikhs, who constitute 10% of the HCBA membership and have a substantial concentration in Jammu, were also never picked as judges for JKHC.
Even as judges or CJs are not essentially picked up from ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic, gender or cultural identities, there are remarkable instances when the selections were influenced with interventions from different pressure groups and corridors of power in New Delhi. If well-placed judicial sources are to be believed, Sunil Hali was appointed as a judge of JKHC within months of a communication from Rashtrapti Bhawan seeking representation to the Kashmiri Pandit minority and satisfaction to a “sentiment” in 2008.
Again in 2013, lawyer Tashi Rabstan was appointed as a judge of JKHC when influential political and religious entities from Ladakh to New Delhi had built up substantial pressure for giving “due representation” to Ladakh region and the Buddhist minority. Such campaigning however did not work when names of some Jammu-based Muslim lawyers had been even recommended by the Collegium.
On different occasions, the Collegium of JKHC had recommended leading criminal lawyer Ghulam Nabi Goni, his son and former Advocate General Mohammad Aslam Goni besides another former Advocate General Shabir Ahmad Salaria to fill up some vacancies of the judges in the State High Court. All the three hailed from Jammu. Of them, Salaria and Aslam Goni also emerged as National Conference leaders. Salaria also served a term as a member of Rajya Sabha.
As lately as in 2012, when B.S. Salathia was President of HCBA Jammu, his association submitted a memorandum to then visiting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, seeking representation to the Jammu Muslims in the State High Court. However, no Muslim from Jammu or a Sikh was picked up when four judges – Ali Mohammad Magrey, Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Tashi Rabstan and Janak Raj Kotwal- were appointed in March, 2013, and three more – Bawa Singh Walia (2015), Ramalingam Sudhakar (2016) and Alok Aradhe (2016) – were transferred to JKHC from different States. No Jammu Muslim or Sikh does also figure among the seven lawyers and three judges currently under consideration of the competent authority in New Delhi.
