Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 3: High Court rejected the claim of the petitioners for allotment of shops in Srinagar Municipality Complex with the recording that the petitioners in league with Municipal officials have prepared fake documents.
Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey while dealing with the claim of the petitioners, in an elaborated judgment recorded that the petitioners have been party to the preparation of fake documents by the Municipal officers, like Assistant Revenue Officer and Ward Officers concerned and are accused in the criminal case pending adjudication in the court of competent jurisdiction concerning the fraud.
Court said that there is yet another aspect of the matter which is that equitable and discretionary extraordinary relief under Article 226 can be invoked only by a person who comes to the court with clean hands and for lawful objective.
“When a false claim or statement is made on a fake document, it is inferable that the claim or the statement has been made with a well planned intention of influencing the mind of the court on a material aspect in a case for the decision, and cause the court to entertain an erroneous claim”, Justice Magrey said.
Court said, when a claim is founded on a fake document, containing false statement, it is to be treated to have been made intending that such statement contained in the fake document would appear in evidence in the writ proceedings and that such false statement, so appearing in evidence, would influence the Judge in forming an opinion upon such fabricated documents to entertain erroneous opinion touching a material point in the proceedings.
“So, such attempt on the part of a party can assume serious repercussions in dispensation of justice. In any case, in such a situation, the writ petitioner would not deserve any equitable relief”, court said.
The petitioners which are nine in number, claiming to be dislocated shopkeepers of Hazuri Bagh, Srinagar, and asserting to have been assured allotment of shops in the proposed Municipal Shopping Complex at Iqbal Park (Hazuri Bagh) under self financing scheme by way of rehabilitation against a premium initially fixed at Rs.80,000/- per shop in the ground floor and Rs.60,000/- in the first floor, in lieu whereof the petitioners, on demand, state to have deposited the first installment of the premium as fixed, as such had approached court through the instant petition, seeking essentially the relief of a direction to the respondents to allot them the assured shops in Block-C of the Shopping Complex.
Court for rehabilitation of the petitioners said, they first were required to establish that they were actually and in fact running their businesses in any shop, khokha, kiosk etc., from which they were dislocated by the then Municipal Committee.
The investigation into the FIR registered in this connection by the Anticorruption Organization, has established that none of the petitioners was in possession of any such business premises, nor had any one of them been dislocated from any business premises, like shop, khokha, kiosk etc.
It has also been established that list of 120 persons, purported to be dislocated shopkeepers, which includes the petitioners, is fake and false and this list had been prepared by the Ex-Assistant Revenue Officer, Ex-Ward Officer Jawahar Nagar and Ex-Ward Officer Lal Chowk of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, who have been found to be involved in, and are accused, in the FIR and in the challan ultimately presented before the Court together with the so called dislocated shopkeepers, including the petitioners.
“There is no denying the fact that the whole matter hinges on this list of 120 persons on the plea that these persons were to be rehabilitated. Once the list is found to be fake, the earth underneath the claim of the petitioners gets removed”, reads the judgment.
Court also questioned the duty of the Srinagar Municipality who has not itself unearthed this fraud and, in fact, court added, they seem to have been afoot in the process to make allotment of shops to these persons.
“……Once the fraud committed with the connivance of its concerned officials / officers has been established in the Police investigation, the Corporation was and is under no obligation, legally or otherwise, to make allotment to any of the enlisted persons, including the petitioners”, reads the judgment.
Court after dismissing the petition, however, directed that Srinagar Municipal Corporation shall refund the amounts received by it, if any, from the petitioners or any one of them, either before filing this writ petition or during its pendency, whether without or under any order of the Court, towards the payment of premium, within a period of two months from today along with interest thereon as per Bank rates, applicable from time to time, till the amount is actually refunded.
Follow our WhatsApp channel