Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 26: In blatant violation of the judgment of Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, State Vigilance Organization (SVO) is sleeping over several corruption related complaints during the past quite long time that too without any lawful justification and in a contempt petition filed in this regard, High Court today issued notice to Director Vigilance.
The Director Vigilance, Sheikh Owais Ahmed has also been directed by Justice Tashi Rabstan to file statement of facts within a period of two weeks and Registry asked to list the petition after service is complete.
The petition seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the Director Vigilance was filed for willful/intentional/deliberate defiance of judgment dated November 12, 2013 passed by the Supreme Court of India in writ petition titled Lalita Kumari Versus State of UP and Others.
The judgment of Constitutional Bench of the Apex Court headed by Chief Justice of India says that registration of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure if the information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation.
If the information received doesn’t disclose a cognizable offence but indicates the necessity for an inquiry, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted only to ascertain whether cognizable offence is disclosed or not and if the inquiry discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, the FIR must be registered, the judgment further says.
According to the judgment, the police officer cannot avoid his duty of registering offence if cognizable offence is disclosed and action must be taken against erring officers, who do not register the FIR if information received by him discloses a cognizable offence. The category of cases in which preliminary inquiry may be made include matrimonial/ family disputes, medical negligence cases and corruption cases etc. The judgment further says that preliminary inquiry should be made time bound and in any case it should not exceed 7 days.
During the course of hearing in the contempt petition filed by Prof S K Bhalla, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed submitted that five complaints were submitted to the State Vigilance Organization for registration of FIRs under Section 5(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act against the officers involved in corrupt practices but the Director Vigilance without any valid reason has been sitting over these complaints.
He further submitted that two complaints came to be lodged in the year 2011 and 2012 and till date the preliminary enquiries have not been finalized. Similarly, two other complaints were lodged on January 8, 2014 and the time limit prescribed by the Apex Court has also expired but the respondent has not finalized the preliminary enquiries as per the spirit of the Apex Court judgment.
Advocate Ahmed further said that latest complaint was lodged on March 4, 2014 and in this case also the time limit prescribed by the Supreme Court has also expired. “It appears that the respondent is not interested to finalize the preliminary enquiries primarily for the reason that the accused are highly influential and have no respect for law”, he added.
“The Director Vigilance is sitting over the enquiries without any lawful justification and has miserably failed to implement the directions of the Apex Court which contemplates the completion of preliminary enquiry within seven days”, the counsel for the petitioner said, adding “the inaction of the respondent is contumacious and he is liable to be punished for violating the directions of the Apex Court”.
According to the contempt petition, complaint dated September 16, 2011 against Dr Nutan K Resutra, the then Principal Government Degree College Rajouri was referred to SSP Vigilance Organization Jammu for enquiry by the Court of Special Judge Anti-corruption Jammu on September 18, 2011 but fate of complaint is still hanging in balance. In this complaint, misappropriation of local funds to the tune of Rs 1.32 crore has been alleged.
Similarly, complaint against Dr Hemla Aggarwal, the then Principal SPMR College of Commerce was filed on March 24, 2012. In this complaint, purchase of various items worth Rs 7,99,510 without observing codal formalities has been alleged. The complaint against F C Bhagat, the then Director Urban Local Bodies Jammu and others was filed on January 8, 2014 for alleged illegal/backdoor appointments in various Municipal Committees of Jammu province.
The other complaints pertain to alleged issuance of false/ fraudulent Fard-e-Intikhabs of agricultural land at Toph Sherkhania and alleged illegal/backdoor appointments in the Secretariat of Legislative Assembly.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel