MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court has issued notices to the government and other respondents to file their comments on a writ petition challenging the recent appointment of a retired judicial officer as chairman AJK Service Tribunal.
On March 8, the AJK president had appointed Raja Tariq Javed, a retired district and sessions judge currently serving as judge election tribunal, as chairman Service Tribunal for a three-year term.
According to a law department notification, the appointment was made by the president in exercise of the powers conferred by section (3) (4) (a) of AJK Service Tribunal Act 1975 “in consultation with the chief justice of AJK supreme court and chief justice of AJK high court and on the advice of the prime minister”.
However, Mr Janjua maintained that the president and other respondents had ignored a number of grounds while making this appointment due to which it was liable to be struck down ab initio.
Quoting section 3 (2) (a), he said an advocate of the AJK high court or [any] high court in Pakistan for a period not less than 10 years, or a person with 10 years’ experience of judicial service, with a service of at least three years as district and sessions judge could be appointed as chairman.
In the case of a judicial officer, Mr Janjua claimed, only a serving and not a retired district and sessions judge could be appointed as chairman.
“Mr Javed does not fulfill the criteria for the appointment in the light of the principles settled by the AJK Supreme Court in a landmark judgement delivered in 2012,” he said, adding that the same settled principles were upheld by the apex court in 2016 not only for the appointment of chairman Service Tribunal but also the custodian evacuee property.
The petitioner went on toallegethat as district judge Mr Javed had been censured by the higher authorities for misconduct which also rendered him ineligible to be appointed against any senior post.
Relying on the summary by the president, Mr Janjua contended that the consultation criteria had not been adhered to either in this appointment.
In this regard, he said the AJK apex court had itself ruled that the consultees (chief justices) should send a panel of three names for one post to the appointing authority while in this case only one name was sent to the president.
The petitioner had also filed an application for interim relief but the bench comprising Justice Syed Shahid Bahar and Justice Sardar Ejaz Khan did not immediately grant him relief and instead ordered the respondents to submit their objections on the application along with their comments on the petition by or before the next date of hearing on March 21.
Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2022