Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 3: In the much publicized petition seeking directions to the State Vigilance Organization for registration of FIR against three former Speakers of State Legislative Assembly for making illegal/ backdoor appointments in J&K Assembly Secretariat, Justice Bansi Lal Bhat today directed the IGP (Vigilance) to take a final call in the matter in view of the preliminary enquiry report submitted before the High Court in July 2015 and place the decision taken in the matter before the court.
When this much publicized petition came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed appearing for petitioner drew the attention of the court to the latest compliance report filed by IGP (Vigilance) wherein SVO disclosed that on the basis of the directions passed by the State High Court on April, 16, 2015 the preliminary enquiry was conducted into the matter through SSP VOJ and a compliance report was submitted before this court on July 10, 2015.
“The preliminary enquiry report is before this court since July 2015 and appropriate directions are required to be issued to the IGP (Vigilance) to take a final call in the matter so that appropriate action may be initiated against those involved in the J&K Legislative Assembly recruitment scam”, Advocate Ahmed said, adding “as per the status report filed by the VOJ it has been prima facie established that 37 appointments were made by 3 former Speakers in breach of established norms/procedure and these posts were filled on pick and choose basis without following due procedure prescribed under law”.
He further submitted that 28 appointments have been made by Mohammad Akbar Lone, 5 appointments by Tara Chand and 4 appointments by Mubarak Gul, all former Speakers of J&K Legislative Assembly. “It is only because of the intervention of the State High Court that this recruitment scam was unearthed as initially the SVO had closed the matter on flimsy grounds and by virtue of detailed order passed by the High Court on April 16, 2015, the matter was directed to be re-investigated by SVO within a period of two months”, he added.
AAG PC Sharma appearing for SVO submitted that the SVO is awaiting a nod from this court to proceed further in the matter as the matter was re-looked into on the express directions of the court.
After considering the submissions of Advocate S S Ahmed appearing for the petitioner, AAG P C Sharma for SVO, Senior Advocate P N Raina with J A Hamal appearing for Mohd Ramzan, Secretary J&K Legislative Assembly, Advocate Ahtsham Bhat for GAD and Advocate Mandeep Singh appearing vice Advocate D S Chouhan for Mohammad Akbar Lone, former Speaker, Justice Bansi Lal Bhat in the open court directed the IGP (Vigilance) to take a final call in the matter within two weeks from today.
High Court also directed the SVO to place such decision before the court and further directed the Registry to list this matter immediately after two weeks.
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