'Centre, state govt creating regional imbalance in judiciary'

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association today accused the Centre and the state government of creating regional imbalance in judiciary by appointing fewer judges from the Valley which was the most populous region in the state.
"The Bar (Association) places on record a strong protest against the regional imbalance and the discrimination by the BJP government in appointing three more judges to the J&K state High Court and by the PDP-BJP government in the subordinate judiciary," the lawyers' body claimed in a statement.
It claimed after the appointment of three judges, an "imbalance" was created in the high court as out of 12 judges only two are from Kashmir against five from Jammu, one from Ladakh and, four including the chief justice from outside state.

"While for about 1.5 lakh people of Ladakh, there is one representation in the high court, for Jammu which has less population than Kashmir the representation is five, but the representation from Kashmir has been restricted to only two.
"(It) by itself is a clear-cut proof of regional imbalance and discrimination resorted to by the BJP Goverment," the association claimed.
It said that recently eight sub-judges were promoted to the post of district and sessions judge, out of whom only one was from Kashmir and rest all were from Jammu.
"One Kashmiri who topped Higher Judicial Examination two years back and was thus entitled to be appointed to the post of district and sessions judge has not been appointed because he was not cleared by the state intelligence agencies," the association claimed.