J&K governor calls for 'effective justice'
in militancy-hit areas
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Jammu & Kashmir Governor Girish Chandra Saxena has urged legal luminaries to suggest measures to ensure effective functioning of the judicial system in disturbed situations as in his state.
"Rule of law and administration of justice come under severe strain during disturbed law-and-order conditions," he said while delivering the presidential address at the second Judicial Officers' Conference organised by the Jammu and Kashmir high court in Jammu today.
The governor said, "This has relevance to the circumstances we had to face in our state after militancy broke out on an extensive scale about nine years back and sometimes took the form of an externally backed proxy war."
In the initial stages, Saxena said, the "criminal and judicial administration at the district level showed signs of collapse in the
Kashmir valley" and "in the then prevalent environment of violence, fear and intimidation, the local courts and the police could not function properly".
The situation, he said, could "only be contained by sizeable induction of security forces, which had to operate in 'war-like conditions' ".
The governor said the number of violent incidents rose so sharply over a wide area that the police and district administrations felt overwhelmed. The available strength of personnel, interrogators and investigators "proved to be grossly inadequate to deal with the very large number of suspects and accused persons apprehended and to manage the resultant documentation and paper work".
"Due to fear of the gun, people were not prepared to come forward as witnesses, and prosecutors and lawyers were reluctant to take up cases on behalf of the State. Similar factors affected sections of the magistrates and judicial officers and the high court was burdened with hundreds of petitions."
Governor Saxena, however, expressed satisfaction with the present security scenario and said "things have much improved in the past three years".
But he said it would be useful for judicial officers to discuss, on the basis of this experience, "what security and other measures are necessary to ensure proper and effective functioning of the judicial system in such disturbed conditions".
One particular issue Saxena said needs to be addressed "is whether the normal laws and procedures are sufficient to cope with the pressures of such situations for protection of public and national interest or whether more recourse to special legislation or special courts is called for".
The conference is being attended, among others, by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Chief Justice of India Dr Adarsh Sein Anand.
Dr Abdullah said that during militancy "some shariat courts came up in Kashmir which decided the fate of people and executed them". He cited the brutal murder of Mir Mustafa, a former MLA.
"Those days the administrative set-up seemed to be collapsing, but there were some who did a commendable job during those difficult days of our history," he said.
Abdullah said "the indoctrination [of the militants] was to such an extent that a killer, who confessed on TV to having killed many innocents, said he would have even abided by the order of killing his parents".
Expressing concern at the growing nexus of lawyers with the mafia, the chief minister said though lawyers have a professional obligation to defend all, they should exercise their discretion so that "culprits don't go scot-free and the rule of law prevails".
Citing the large number of holidays as one of the main reasons for judicial delays, he indicated that the number of holidays in Jammu & Kashmir would be reduced.
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