Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has referred to a full bench, the plea filed by Senior Advocate Abdul Majid Dar seeking an inquiry against sitting High Court judge Justice Javed Iqbal Wani.
On October 9, the bench of Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi ordered that the plea be listed before some other bench next week.
According to sources, the plea is now likely to be heard by a full bench comprising Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh, and Justices Sanjeev Kumar and Tashi Rabstan on October 20.
Bar and Bench contacted the Registrar Judicial of the High Court’s Srinagar Wing, Farooq Bhat for more information, but he refused to comment.
The plea against the judge was filed against Justice Wani who had briefly initiated and dropped contempt proceedings against Dar on August 23, 2023.
Dar, however, alleged that he was summarily detained in judicial custody over the episode.
It is stated that he was detained for causing an interruption and remarking ‘this is ridiculous’ in the Court when he was not allowed to make arguments on August 23 during a hearing presided over by Justice Wani in an ongoing case (Noora Begum v. Commissioner and Others)
On the said day, Justice Wani passed an order directing the Registrar (Judicial) to not allow Dar to leave the Court so that the Court may proceed in the matter.
The senior lawyer was then asked to explain his conduct and explain why he should not be convicted of contempt of court. However, other lawyers present were said to have requested the court to take a lenient view in the matter.
Taking note of the requests made by the advocates including some senior advocates, the contempt proceedings were dropped by the Court on the same day.
Dar then filed a plea for an inquiry against Justice Wani, highlighting that he was summarily sentenced to judicial custody until 5:30 PM. The plea stated that he was detained in court by the police and the CRPF for about 40-50 minutes.
He contended that this was done without following the due process of law or adhering to the Contempt of Courts Act.
Dar said that he was condemned unheard and without following procedures such as the farming of charges. He was awarded the conviction in a most arbitrary manner and against the canons of law and rules governing the field, the plea added.
The plea further said that the entire sequence of events was captured by surveillance cameras within the court and that the CCTV footage would support Dar’s claims that he was escorted to the office of the Registrar Judicial by security officers.
