Prof SK Bhalla
A sense of unease and disquiet prevails among the Advocates of Jammu since Nov 01. Much heat and dust has been raised during the ongoing agitational path undertaken by a highly qualified section of society. Unfortunately, no one has taken the trouble of explaining at length the reasons which have compelled these worthies to undertake this unusual course of action that has caused tremendous inconvenience to a common man like me who has great expectations both from the judiciary as also our learned brother-advocates.
The Northlines, an independent daily of Jammu on December 01, reported an earth-shattering news story quoting in its sub-heading the Minister in PMO – ‘Will not succumb to JK Lawyers demands'. For the commoners the concerned minister is none else but Mr. Jatinder Singh who has been taking a very high moral ground on matters of life and death. This new Avtaar of Jitender Singh of ‘Tale of Travesty' theme makes many people quiet perplexed. Waqt Waqt ki Baat hai.
Coming to the core issue as understood from various interactions and media reporting, it can be safely said that the decision taken by the government was in haste and without application of mind that has made the situation more murky leading to frayed tempers and a lot of mud-slinging also. The government could have first done its home work well – like making the revenue record fully digitalized and its language simplified, providing infrastructure in its newly created department of Registration, recruitment of personnel, their trainings etc in the first instance and then they would have ventured out in disturbing the status quo in the matter of Registration process.
I fail to understand the modus operandi of the select coterie operational in the corridors of power as many decisions are taken in hush-hush manner despite the sloganeering of transparency and governance at door-step. Much harm than good has been done by these befooling tactics. Mr. Jatinder Singh, being a localite instead of healing the wounds has further confounded the situation with his irresponsible and arrogant utterances which have left a bad taste in the mouth.
The need of hour is to slash the ego and sit across the table to sort out the present mess without any delay as the interests of the common citizenry are also at stake. With due respects to a few Advocates differing with the incumbent Bar President over the way the agitation is being handled specially in the absence of expected support from Chamber of Industry and Commerce and other trade unions, a highly confusing scenario has been created. It is hoped that the good sense will prevail among all the stake holders and situation diffused at earliest.
