Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 16: Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Bansi Lal Bhat today directed the Registry to list on November 23 the bunch of petitions wherein the orders issued by the State Accountability Commission have been stayed.
These bunch of petitions were listed today before the Division Bench but due to paucity of time the same could not be heard.
When the Division Bench was about to rise, Advocate S S Ahmed submitted that matters pertaining to SAC are pending in the court for the last 7 to 8 years and because of the stay orders obtained by various public functionaries, the proceedings before the SAC have been stayed and these matters involving public interest are required to be heard at an early date.
He also submitted that another batch of appeals filed by SAC against the judgment of the Single Judge wherein it was held that SAC does not have suo moto powers to try the cases also warrant early hearing. Advocate Ahmed further submitted that full coram is now available in SAC and because of stay orders the functioning of the SAC has come to a standstill. He prayed for immediate listing of these matters.
Advocate General Jahangir Iqbal Ganai submitted that these matters require thorough consideration and the same cannot be listed in the daily supplementary cause list as it needs sizable time and both the batches of petition should be heard separately.
Looking into the seriousness of the matters, the Division Bench directed the Registry to list the SAC matters on November 23 for final consideration.
It is worthwhile to mention here that writ petitions were filed by former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, former Minister Abdul Majid Wani, former Chairperson Khem Lata Wakhloo, IAS officer Atal Dulloo, Jamrod Singh, the then SHO Police Station Sunderbani, Dr Mohd Din, the then Commissioner/Secretary Animal Husbandry and Dharamveer Koul, the then Executive Engineer PWB (R&B) Udhampur challenging various orders passed by SAC.
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