2 more judges likely to join politics soon

Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Syed Tauqeer and Muzaffar Iqbal have already joined NC

SRINAGAR: Three retired or serving officers of the Jammu and Kashmir judiciary having already joined the National Conference, two more judges in the Kashmir valley are likely to join politics in the near future.
A retired District & Sessions Judge of South Kashmir, who reached superannuation in the current year, is expected to join active politics. Sources close to him insist that the judge who organised a grand feast upon his retirement is likely to join Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), even as his second choice is reportedly Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Azad Peoples Party (DPAP).
According to sources, the retired judicial officer is “very much interested” in contesting the Assembly election from a segment in South Kashmir.
Another retired judicial officer who, according to well-placed sources is keen to join politics and contest the forthcoming Assembly elections, is a resident of Baramulla district. After his retirement as Additional District and Sessions Judge in 2022 he was widely expected to join the NC and was reportedly the party’s strong contender for a ticket from the Baramulla segment.
However, he was appointed as a member of a government panel. In his absence, NC activist Ghulam Hassan Rahi was appointed as the party’s incharge for the Baramulla segment. In yet another development, former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig’s nephew Javed Hassan Baig resigned from the PDP and joined the NC. Currently he too is a strong contender for the NC’s ticket from Baramulla. Javed Hassan Baig was elected as MLA from Baramulla on PDP’s ticket in 2014. Insiders believe that the retired judge’s possible joining could change the electoral dynamics in Baramulla.
Among the judges who joined politics in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 50 years, Jammu’s Devi Das Thakur stands at the top. He was an Additional Judge in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court before Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah returned to the mainstream politics and inducted Mr Thakur as a Minister in his Cabinet in 1975.
Later, Mr Thakur was among the NC politicians who shifted loyalties to Sheikh’s son-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah. This group of the NC MLAs brought down Farooq Abdullah’s NC government and installed Shah as Chief Minister with the support of Indira Gandhi’s Congress party in 1984.
Mr Thakur was inducted as Deputy Chief Minister in Ghulam Mohammad Shah’s NC (Khalida)-Congress coalition government which ended in February 1986.
Two of Mr Thakur’s sons rose to the positions of judges in Jammu and Kashmir High Court. While his elder son Tirath Singh Thakur was subsequently appointed a judge and Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India, his younger son Dhiraj Singh Thakur after being a judge in J&K High Court functioned as a judge of Bombay High Court. He is currently Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court.
In recent times, Mr Hasnain Masoodi, who retired as a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2016, joined the NC in 2019. In the same year, he contested the Lok Sabha election on the NC’s ticket from South Kashmir and was elected as a Member of the Parliament. He defeated high profile candidates—former Chief Minister and ex-MP Mehbooba Mufti and President of J&K Pradesh Congress Committee and a former Minister Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
Mr Masoodi has been appointed as the NC’s constituency incharge from Pampore wherefrom he is likely to be the party’s candidate in the next Assembly elections. His son Yawar Masoodi was the NC’s candidate in the Assembly elections of 2014 but he lost to PDP’s Zahoor Ahmad Mir.
Following his voluntary retirement from judicial service as District & Sessions Judge in 2018, Syed Tauqeer has also joined the NC. He was likely to be the party’s candidate in the next Assembly elections from Kokernag, Anantnag. However, after the recent delimitation, he has been appointed as the NC’s constituency incharge in Dooru, Anantnag. He is likely to be the party’s candidate from Dooru in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Son of the NC’s former MLA of Rajouri advocate Mohammad Aslam Khan, Muzaffar Iqbal Khan resigned as a Sub Judge in 2018. Later he too joined the NC. He was expected to be the NC’s candidate from Rajouri in the Assembly elections. However, after the recent delimitation, he is most likely to be the NC’s candidate from the newly created Assembly constituency of Thanamandi in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Mr Khan, who also filed an independent petition against the abrogation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court of India, was on the forefront of the NC’s Anantnag-Rajouri candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad in the recent Lok Sabha elections. He is currently practising as an advocate in Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Supreme Court of India.