Dead man made party to a petition, High Court pulls up Jammu police and admin

This court “is not cherishing the manner in which the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is taking liberty of invoking the jurisdiction of this Court by acting upon the whims and fancies of its Law Department officials by sidelining the opinion and instructions of Senior Additional Advocate General or for that matter other Government counsel who are to represent the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the matter before this Court and that position is reflected from the present petition but nevertheless this Court is venturing to show indulgence”, Justice Bharti said.

He went on to say: “Such is the state of desperation of the petitioners that the respondent named in the present petition is a dead person.”

At the root of the petition is a 2008 compensation decree passed by the court of the Additional District Judge, Jammu. The decree, dated November 29, 2008, followed a civil suit filed by Jia Lal Raina against the then State of J&K and others.

Following this, the chief secretary, the DGP and the DIG — three of the five judgment debtors against whom the decree was passed — appealed to the High Court, which in 2011 directed them to deposit Rs 7 lakh towards the compensation. The appeal was eventually dismissed in September 2021 for non-prosecution, meaning that the party that filed it failed to pursue it.

Earlier this year, the three judgment debtors filed a time-barred restoration application, four years after the appeal was dismissed. The move followed an order by a local court to execute the 2008 compensation decree. The Additional District Judge (Commercial Court), Jammu, directed the original respondents — the then State of J&K — to deposit the compensation amount in court.

As a result, the chief secretary, DGP and DIG approached the High Court. By then, however, Raina had died, and his legal representatives were pursuing other aspects of the case, prompting the court’s remarks.

In its order, the High Court said it was “reserving its resentment from being expressly stated in this order with respect to the manner in which the legal affairs are being attended to at the end of none else than the top tier of Civil and Police Administration of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.

However, the court directed the additional district judge to defer the operation of the December order for two months, giving the judgment debtors time to approach the first appellate court — the high court — for interim directions till the outcome of their application.