Jammu: Lecturers Await Decade-Old Salary Dues as High Court Stays Tribunal Costs Order
Over two thousand incharge lecturers who were promoted in Jammu and Kashmir in 2013 have been waiting more than a decade for their salary dues and service benefits, with some having died before ever receiving what was owed to them. While that crisis of delayed dues continues to draw protests from academic staff, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has intervened in a separate dispute, staying a punitive costs order issued by the Central Administrative Tribunal against a senior advocate, and a central government team has visited the region to assess the official response to a lumpy skin disease outbreak striking livestock farmers.
Lecturers Seek Dues Owed Since 2013 Promotions
Thousands of incharge lecturers in Jammu and Kashmir have been waiting over a decade for salary dues and service benefits following a promotion exercise carried out in 2013. According to ETV Bharat, more than two thousand lecturers who were promoted on an incharge basis from that year have never received the full financial recognition those promotions were supposed to bring. The situation has grown increasingly grim with the passage of time. Some of the lecturers who were owed these benefits have since died without ever receiving settlement, while others have retired and stepped away from service still waiting. The in-service staff who remain on active rolls face the same prolonged wait. The delay has sparked visible frustration within the academic community, with lecturers displaying posters demanding both formal confirmation of their promoted status and resolution of pay anomalies that have accumulated over the years. The issue reflects a broader failure to regularize and compensate a cohort of educators who took on promoted roles but were not given the financial recognition to match those responsibilities. Staff associations have continued pushing for resolution, while the backlog of unpaid dues spans both those still teaching and those who have long since left service. The human toll — including lecturers who died waiting — has given the grievance particular weight in public discussion. [1]
🗳️ High Court Stays CAT Order Fining Senior Advocate
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has stayed an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal's Jammu Bench that imposed costs of ten thousand rupees on Senior Advocate Jahangir Ganai. The stay was granted by a Division Bench comprising Justices Sanjeev Kumar and MA Chowdhary while hearing Ganai's writ petition challenging the Tribunal's decision. The CAT had imposed the costs after recording that Ganai appeared before it during virtual proceedings without wearing his professional uniform and made remarks the Tribunal characterized as derogatory against it. The High Court's interim order suspends the effect of those costs while the matter is heard further on its merits. The case raises questions about expectations of professional conduct during remote court proceedings, an issue that became newly relevant after virtual hearings became routine across the Indian judiciary. It also illustrates the oversight role the High Court exercises over tribunals in its jurisdiction, ensuring that procedural orders from bodies like the CAT remain open to scrutiny through established writ remedies. The matter is now pending further hearing before the Division Bench, which will determine whether the CAT's order should ultimately stand or be set aside. [4]
J&K's Long Journey From Conflict to Development
An opinion piece published in the Daily Excelsior by writer Ram Rattan Sharma — who can be reached at internetzonejammu@gmail.com — charts what the author describes as a historic transformation in the fortunes of Jammu and Kashmir. The piece reflects on a region that for decades was defined in public discourse primarily by its security challenges: militancy, political uncertainty, and recurring disruptions to normal life. The author argues that the prevailing narrative has fundamentally changed. Where once the central conversation revolved around containment and conflict management, Sharma contends it now increasingly turns to questions of economic development, infrastructure investment, and sustainable progress. Jammu and Kashmir has travelled a long and difficult journey, the piece acknowledges before turning to the question of where the region now stands. The article adds a local voice to discussions that carry national relevance — examining how a region long synonymous with armed conflict is attempting to redefine itself through civic and economic transformation. The Daily Excelsior op-ed reflects a growing body of commentary from residents and observers who see the years following the 2019 reorganization of the former state as a period of accelerating change, one that presents both new opportunities and ongoing challenges for the people of the region. [6]
🤝 Central Team Reviews Lumpy Skin Disease Measures for Livestock Farmers
A central government team visited Jammu and Kashmir to review the official response to Lumpy Skin Disease, a contagious viral illness affecting cattle and other livestock across the region. The visit, reported by Greater Kashmir citing PTI, came as part of an outreach initiative designed to support farmers managing the outbreak. As part of the exercise, the central team arranged for the distribution of mineral mixture, wound-dressing materials, and disinfectants to livestock farmers in the region. Lumpy Skin Disease has periodically swept through livestock populations across northern India, causing economic distress for farming communities that depend on cattle for dairy production and agricultural labour. The involvement of a central team signals that the outbreak in Jammu and Kashmir reached a scale that warranted review beyond what the Union Territory's own veterinary department could address alone. Officials indicated through a spokesperson that the outreach was focused on practical support — equipping farmers with the supplies needed to manage affected animals and slow the spread of the disease to healthy livestock. The distribution of both protective and therapeutic materials represents a frontline response to what has become a recurring and economically damaging public health problem for the region's agricultural sector, particularly for small-scale farmers whose livelihoods depend heavily on their cattle. [8]
Sources: [1] ETV Bharat · [4] Bar and Bench · [6] Daily Excelsior · [8] Greater Kashmir