STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In a significant development, a Division Bench of J&K and Ladakh High Court at Jammu comprising Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Puneet Gupta while hearing a Public Interest litigation (PIL No.9/2012) titled Sheikh Mohd. Shafi and anr. vs Union of India and ors. in the open court expressed its concern over the delay on the part of Govt. of J&K in forwarding proposal for grant of prosecution sanction with regard to IAS officers allegedly involved in Arms License Scam for which CBI has sought prosecution sanction of IAS officers in 2 FIRs. The Advocate General D.C Raina appearing for Govt. of J&K requested the Division Bench that he will report instructions in the matter on Friday i.e. June, 02, 2023.
When this much publicized PIL came up for hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Supriya Chouhan and Advocate Mohd. Zulkarnain Chowdhary appearing for the petitioners submitted that the Govt of J&K is shielding the IAS officers involved in Arms License Scam and since June, 2021, the GAD is sitting over the matter as DoPT, Govt of India had returned the proposal in June, 2021 to Govt. of J&K to remove the defects in the file in order to facilitate DoPT to proceed further in the matter.
Advocate S.S Ahmed vehemently argued that since June, 2021, there is no headway in the matter and Govt of J&K is ex-facie delaying the matter to shield the blue-eyed IAS officers against whom CBI has prima facie made out a case. Advocate Ahmed further submitted that the timeline fixed by the Apex Court in its celebrated judgment Subramanian Swamy vs. Dr. Manmohan Singh is being flouted with impunity by the J&K Govt.
At this stage, the Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh heading the Division Bench put a specific query to Senior AAG S. S Nanda about the delay in the matter and the Advocate General D.C Raina in the open court assured the Division Bench that he will report instructions in the matter on Friday and will also file response in the matter. DSGI Vishal Sharma appeared for Union of India/DoPT.
In view of the statement of the Advocate General D.C Raina, the Division Bench directed the registry to re-notify the instant PIL for June, 02, 2023.