J&K HC cautions govt on 4,000 pending contempt petitions

Four months into her term as the first female Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Gita Mittal has cracked the whip on the state administration to fall in line with the orders passed by the court.

Finding that 4,000 contempt cases were pending before the High Court, Justice Mittal lost her cool during a hearing on November 26. She warned the state government that if necessary follow up action was not taken in these cases, she would be forced to summon the administrative heads and Secretaries of the concerned Ministries to Court.

While this was just an oral observation, the confirmation of this fact came through in a letter issued subsequently by the Chief Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir government on November 28, which got leaked into the public domain on Thursday.

In his letter, Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said, "During hearing of a matter in an open court in Srinagar on November 26, 2018 the Hon'ble Chief Justice, High Court of J&K has observed that approximately 4,000 contempt petitions are pending before the HC at Srinagar, thereby indicating that the government is not complying with the directions of the court."

While not much is known about the type of cases and the period over which they have been pending in the HC, Khurram Parvez of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) spoke to DNA and shed light on these aspects. "The pendency of contempt petitions is an indicator how the state government is disobeying the court's directions with impunity. Of the contempt petitions, most are related to human rights violations where the court either ordered investigation against the armed forces involved or directed compensation for the survivors. In many cases, the JKCCS has approached the HC in contempt action against the state agencies and authorities," he said.

In the last 28 years, no armed forces personnel has been prosecuted in civilian courts for human rights violations ranging from mass rapes, enforced disappearances, to extra-judicial executions and torture, he added.

Going by the tone and tenor of the Chief Secretary's letter, CJ Mittal wants urgent action. The letter said, "All Administrative Secretaries are accordingly directed to immediately review the contempt petitions pending against their departments both at HC bench of Srinagar and Jammu and take a well informed decision in each of these cases." The Chief Secretary even authorized the departments to consult the Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs department of the state for solving legal issues coming in the way of implementing HC orders. Till a year ago, 62,040 cases were pending in the High Court, as per a written department of the Law department furnished to the J&K Legislative Assembly.