Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 23: Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Puneet Gupta has upheld the judgement of writ court quashing the premature retirement of Aijaz Ahmad Kirmani, the then I/C Assistant Executive Engineer.
“The striking aspect is that the respondent stands acquitted of the charges leveled against him in the criminal case he was allegedly involved in. Though that is an event post compulsory retirement of the respondent, but the foundation of the case had been removed prior to the compulsory retirement of the respondent when the complaint in his deposition before the court of competent jurisdiction had stated that the accused did not demand money from him and that he had himself put Rs 5,000 in the pocket of the shirt of the accused”, the DB said.
On this deposition before the court, the complainant had been declared hostile by the prosecution itself. This was obviously an important factor which ought to have been taken note of by the Committee/Government, but that has not been, the DB further said, adding “this is borne out by the judgment dated 13.12.2013 delivered by the court of Special Judge, Anti-corruption, Srinagar, in case FIR No.28/2007, a copy whereof has been placed on record of the writ petition. Such being the situation, there was no material or reason for the committee to suspect the integrity of the respondent or to categorize him as a person of dubious integrity”.
“Resultantly, we do not find any irregularity or illegality committed by the Single Judge in passing the impugned judgment”, the DB said.
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