Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 16: Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Justice Mohd Yaqoob Mir and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur today reprimanded the Government for its insensitiveness towards corruption and embezzlement cases involving hundreds of officers. The DB also took serious note of non-compliance of its orders on 147 departmental enquiries pending against various gazetted officers and embezzlement cases involving 145 officials and directed the Secretaries of the General Administration Department and Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department to strictly adhere to the orders within two weeks failing which they will have to appear in person.
These observations and remarks were passed by the Division Bench in two separate Public Interest Litigations (PILs) titled Sheikh Mohd Shafi and Another Versus Union of India and Others and Mushtaq Ahmad and Others Versus State of J&K and Others.
When the PIL highlighting different facets of corruption and non-serious approach of the Government towards this menace came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad appearing for the petitioner drew the attention of the Division Bench towards the orders passed by the court in the context of 147 departmental enquiries pending against various gazetted officers.
“On April 4, the DB had directed the GAD Secretary to inform the court about the stage of enquiries, nature of charges, status of officers and their present postings. However, there was no strict compliance by the GAD Secretary, which compelled the DB to issue another order on April 23 directing him to file complete status report within two weeks”, Advocate Ahmad said, adding “the second order was passed with the observation that all the statements made before the DB at that time were far from satisfaction”.
“This indicates that Government doesn’t have the will to proceed against the officers facing these departmental enquiries”, he said, adding “such an approach clearly establishes that menace of corruption is not being taken seriously and corrupt elements are being encouraged”.
He said that similar was the response of the Government towards the other directions pertaining to providing staff and prosecuting officers to the courts of 7 Additional District and Sessions Judges empowered to hear the cases under the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act. “Due to slackness of the Government in implementing the orders of the court the objective behind creation of these courts could not be achieved till date”, he added.
Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi, who was appearing for the State Accountability Commission submitted that for want of proper staff, functioning of the Commission has come to halt. “No steps have been taken so far so as to enable the Commission to function properly”, he said, adding “what to talk of providing Investigation Wing to the Commission even the Government is sitting over a recommendation of the Commission regarding filling up of the post of Deputy Registrar, which is vacant since February this year”.
However, Senior Additional Advocate General, Gagan Basotra stated that various steps have been taken but due to certain unavoidable circumstances which include the election process the compliance could not be ensured.
On this, DB remarked, in the open court, “the election process is no impediment in implementing the orders of the court and this has already been cleared in the earlier order”, adding “by one pretext or the other the important matters are prolonged to the disadvantage of the public at large”.
While expressing displeasure over the non-adherence to the directives, the DB said, “let the Secretary GAD be present in the court on next date of hearing to explain his conduct”. However, Senior Additional Advocate General sought two weeks’ time to file compliance report. On this, DB directed that the compliance report be filed by or before June 3. “In case of default, personnel presence of the Commissioner/ Secretary GAD shall be indispensable”, the DB directed.
In another PIL highlighting the issue of embezzlement of ration worth crores of rupees by the officials of the CAPD Department and failure of the Government to effect recovery from the erring officials, the DB observed, “the orders pertaining to this grave issue have also been taken very lightly by the Secretary of the Department”.
“In the last order 88 officials belonging to Kashmir division and 57 belonging to Jammu division against whom embezzlement and recovery proceedings were stated to be pending, were directed to furnish the details of their moveable and immoveable assets in their name, spouse, brother or children including the details of their bank accounts. However, only one has responded”, the DB observed.
“It is not known as to whether Secretary CAPD Department has issued notices to them as he was under the direction to publish list of those officials along with the court order in the newspapers. Whether needful has been done is not known”, the DB said, adding “it is quite disturbing that compliance report in terms of order dated April 1, 2014 has not been filed by the Secretary till date”.
The DB remarked, “It appears that the matter has not been taken seriously. As a word of caution, we are constrained to observe that any further slackness on the part of the Secretary will be viewed very seriously, which may include his personal appearance as well as imposition of costs”.
After hearing Advocate S K Shukla, Amicus, the DB directed, “without any further delay/slackness, Secretary CAPD Department shall ensure filing of requisite status/compliance report by or before June 10”, adding “in case of default, he shall remain personally present”.
About the submission of Advocate A H Qazi, who was appearing for one official namely Abdul Rashid Magrey, the DB directed Secretary CAPD to file response to the applications of Abdul Rashid Magrey and 34 other persons, who have prayed for impleading them as party respondents.
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