“Both the Jammu as well as the Srinagar regions equally require administration and governance round the year without interruption. It is unfair and opposed to public interest to deprive either region completely of access to government machinery for six months at a time,” the court said.
For a period of almost six weeks annually, the court said, the entire governance and administration in the UT comes to a grinding halt creating a governance deficit. “The sensitivity of the issues with which the UT Government is engaged can ill afford this gap in governance,” the court said, observing it is against the public interest.
“Valuable documents and resources of the UT in the nature of important and sensitive government documents are put to tremendous risk in the process of their transportation as they are packed in trunks and carried in hired trucks over a distance of 300 kilometers. This practice may have the consequence of imperilling State and National security,” the court said.
“On account of technological advancements and availability of electronic modes, maintenance of record and communication, there is no need for physical conveyance of assets”.
Underscoring that Information Technology integrates disjoint units into single units virtually, the court said even if the Secretariat and Departments were divided and placed at different locations, they could be virtually unified into a single Secretariat with minimal movement of human resources.
Thousands of government employees, the court said, are compelled to live apart from their families for six months at a time resulting in physical and emotional pressure not only on the employees but spouses, parents, children and dependants.
The court said the administrative requirement of the biannual shifting of the employees year after year as part of their conditions of service to effectuate the Darbar Move was manifestly arbitrary and against Article 14 of the Constitution.
The Darbar Move, the court said, places a huge burden on the police, security forces in the UT.
“Valuable resources of the State – financial and physical – cannot be diverted to completely non-essential usage,” the court said. “There is unwarranted disruption of movement of traffic and personnel on the National Highway for four days on each Darbar Move”.
Observing that J&K is already suffering from high fiscal deficit the court said the expenditure on the Darbar Move is an unwarranted burden on the depleted resources of the UT and a drain on the public exchequer and taxpayers money.
Underling that the expenditure involved is in the nature of mis utilization of valuable public resources which are urgently required for public purposes, the court said a large financial outlay is required to meet the immediate needs to address COVID-19 issues including health, infrastructure, transportation, technology, security, social welfare, unemployment, food to name just a few.
Observing that the Darbar Move results in wastage of time, efforts and energy on inefficient and unnecessary activity- packing of records, the court said the same nurtures inefficiency and leads to lack of governance.
“It also has a huge financial cost in terms of salary paid to employees who spend weeks on this unproductive work. It is a practice which works to the detriment of the larger interest of all the people.”
The Darbar Move, the court said, causes delay in justice dispensation as government records are not available to the pleaders in one region for six months at a time.
“Non availability of the record with the government pleaders in the Wing other than the Main Wing, compels them to seek repeated adjournments as they are unable to file their responses in civil cases or conduct criminal prosecutions for want of government record. The Darbar Move therefore adversely affects the fundamental right of access to justice of the public as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution”.
“The lockdown has compelled enforcement of the ‘Stay at Home and Work from Home’ situation, social distancing has become necessary norm. These circumstances compelled the Government’s conclusion in the order dated 17 April 2020 that the Darbar Move could have dangerous consequences. For this reason as well, the Darbar Move is being rendered unworkable,” court said.
The amount of money, resources and time which could be saved, could be utilized towards the welfare and development of the UT which has otherwise witnessed much turmoil. “The financial saving and resources could be utilized for contributing towards the protection and propagation of its inherent culture and heritage of the communities. It could also be used for facilitating expenditure on the COVID-19 related issues including those of food shortages, unemployment and healthcare amongst others,” court added.
