Lawyers’ ruckus at SDM’s office in Jammu
Aman Zutshi
Jammu: Ruckus took place in the office of Sub-Divisional Magistrate Ghagwal Sunaina Saini in Samba yesterday when several advocates of Bar association Jammu along with a woman lawyer invaded the magistrate’s office and held a demonstration, after which a heated argument took place between the two parties.
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“No one tried to break open the SDM’s door but yes efforts were made to open the door because during public office hours the door should be open for all.
“Other than being an advocate we as citizens have the right to make sure govt offices remain open for masses and us.
“The matter is only of dereliction of duty done by the SDM mam because of her high headedness. She has scared and threatened lawyers and also intentionally pestered them.
“She has said many times that it is my office but actually it is not because it is public office and I fail to comprehend why people on higher officials make such claims.
“The issue is that the SDM mam is also holding the post of Sub-registrar both these posts are different and she used to overlap these two positions to benefit herself.
“In order to pester people she abuses her positions and become Sub-registrar and SDM according to her will.
“The irony is that there are three sub-registrars in Samba. The Vijaypur sub-registrar considers that if somebody’s grand father is a farmer then whole family will be consider as agriculturists .
“But SDM mam says that the agriculture certificate of every member of a family should be made separately.
“The law says that if someone’s head of the family is a farmer then whole family can be considered as farmers.
“She has no power to bring new laws and why there are different laws for Vijaypur and Ghagwal. She is not at all a legislative body.
“She has made a new law to pester people like if someone wants to sell their land and on that parcel of land she wants affidavits of all the family members on the Khasra number attested by judicial magistrate, but what if some members of a family don’t have good relations with each other. This is just to harass local.
“It is the duty of a tehsildar to check the land records and ownership and if they are performing their duties well then why she is demanding affidavits from people.
“The lawyers are intentionally being pestered by SDM mam. Those who have proper knowledge of law that person should be appointed on such posts here.
“The gun was cocked on our lawyer by SDM’s mam SPO inside the office and it is a norm these days to jail people who protest against govt.
“We demand immediate suspension of SDM Ghagwal Sunaina Saini” alleged Samba Bar Association Mandeep Singh Sambyal.
“The lawyers have pulled out my office’s CCTV cameras. I use to sit here in the vigilance of cameras to make sure transparency of my work.
“I’m legally correct that is why I said all those things and it is on record because our cameras record both visuals and audio.
“The matter began on Friday when a lawyer came to me to get an agriculture certificate attest to whom I explained politely that this particular document is invalid these days.
“Because when J&K state became UT so many laws got repealed and new laws got introduced among them is agriculture certificate which we require even if that is issued after November 2021.
“After that the lawyers displaying rude conduct told me to register the document which they have brought.
“They were forcing me to issue a rejection order and why should I be compelled to issue wrong order and I opposed it.
“When I calmly elucidated the lawyer’s concerned party that why I can’t issue order issued they agreed to it but which angered that lawyer and he crossed all the limits and misbehaved with me.
“After that I called police and registered an FIR against the lawyers which irritated the lawyers and then they formed a mob came in my office to fight with me.
“What I have done was legally correct and I have apprised this to my senior officers. They have misbehaved with me.
“They pushed my SPO and made him fall and wounded him. He has not cocked the gun at the lawyers he cocked his gun only in self defence performing the duty”, accused SDM Ghagwal, Sunaina Saini.
