President of India Ram Nath Kovind today issued the warrants for the appointment of Advocate Rajneesh Oswal as Judge of Common High Court of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.

Rajneesh Oswal is the first Advocate to be appointed as Judge to the Common High Court after creation of UT of Jammu and Kashmir and UT of Ladakh on October 31, 2019.

EXCELSIOR in its edition dated January 24, 2020 had exclusively reported that Union Law Ministry has given its approval for appointment of Rajneesh Oswal as Judge of J&K High Court and the formal notification will be issued shortly.

“In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint RajneshOswal, to be a Judge of Common High Court for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh with effect from the date he assumescharge of his office”, read the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

Now, Registrar General of J&K High Court will formallywrite to the Raj Bhawan seeking time for administration of oath to Oswal asJudge of High Court, which is likely to take place in next few days.

With the appointment of Advocate Oswal as Judge the strengthof J&K High Court will increase from eight to nine. The J&K High Courthas sanctioned strength of 17 Judges including 13 Permanent Judges and 4Additional Judges. However, at present there are only eight Judges includingChief Justice Gita Mittal.

The other Judges of the High Court are Justice RajeshBindal, Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice TashiRabstan, Justice Sanjeev Kumar Shukla, Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta and JusticeSindhu Sharma.

Rajnesh Oswal, who has been practising law since 1998 hadalso served as Standing Counsel for Crime Branch Jammu and panel Lawyer forJ&K High Court. Earlier, he did his graduation from GGM Science College andLLB from Jammu University and had also received Gold Medal in LLB academics.