Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 18: Supreme Court today dismissed as withdrawn the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the State Government against the order passed by the Division Bench of Jammu and Kashmir High Court regarding relieving of Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar Baseer Ahmad Khan.
When the SLP came up for hearing before the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice R M Lodha, Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Madan B Lokur, J&K Government Counsel Gourav Pachnanda submitted that State has complied with the order of the Division Bench of State High Court and officer has been transferred.
With this submission, Advocate Pachnanda sought permission to withdraw SLP.
After hearing Advocates Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad and Riju Raj Singh Jamwal appearing for the appellants—Sheikh Mohd Shafi and Prof S K Bhalla (petitioners in the J&K High Court), the Supreme Court dismissed the SLP as withdrawn.
It is pertinent to mention here that on March 13, 2013 Supreme Court had issued notice to the respondents (petitioners in J&K High Court) to appear in person or through their legal representative to file response in the SLP.
With the withdrawal of SLP by the State Government, the order of the DB of J&K High Court has been upheld and legal experts maintained that view of the DB will have far reaching importance in curbing the menace of corruption and for keeping away the tainted officers from the important postings particularly in a State which has been ranked as Number 2 in corruption.
In the meanwhile, the application submitted by the State Government through Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmad, Secretary General Administration Department on March 6, 2013 seeking two weeks time for compliance of the DB order regarding relieving of Baseer Ahmad Khan as Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, came up for hearing before the Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice D S Thakur.
Senior Additional Advocate General, Gagan Basotra appearing for the State submitted that the application has been rendered infructuous for the reason that Baseer Ahmad Khan has already been transferred as decided by the State Cabinet.
After hearing the Senior AAG, the DB observed, “although there has been some delay the same is condoned and the time is deemed to have been extended”.
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