Appointments made on recommendations of high-level panel
SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir government has appointed two members of an advisory board constituted under the Public Safety Act.
The Home department has ordered appointment of former judges, Aijaz Ahmad Mir and Davinder Kapoor, as members of the Board which is empowered or reject PSA detention orders.
“Sanction is hereby accorded to the appointment of Aijaz Ahmad Mir(Retd. District and Sessions Judge) and Davinder Kumar Kapoor(Retd. District and Sessions Judge) as members of the Advisory Board. constituted under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety, 1978, for a period of three years with immediate,” reads an order issued by Principal Secretary Home, Shaleen Kabra, a copy of which is with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO)
The chairman and other members of the Board are appointed by the government on the recommendation of the search-cum-selection committee headed by Chief Secretary (Chairman) and comprising administrative Secretary, Home Department (Member) and Administrative Secretary, Department of Law and Justice and Parliament (Member).
The Board is headed by former J&K HC judge Janak Raj Kotwal. Kotwal was appointed to the post on January 30 last year after the State Administrative Council (SAC) got the sanction for his appointment from Governor Satya Pal Malik. The post had until then remained vacant since March 2018.
Under the law, the Board is supposed to review these orders PSA detention order to confirm or reject them within six weeks. According to data obtained by Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the Board confirmed 99.4% sent to it by the government.