STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In the much publicised Public Interest Litigation (PIL), filed by Prof. S.K. Bhalla highlighting alleged hushing up of Chatta Sunjwan land scam, a Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice B.S. Walia granted two weeks time to Commissioner /Secretary Revenue Department to file updated status report in terms of the last order dated April, 28, 2016 or appear in person on the next date of hearing.
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Irfaan Mohammad Khan and Supriya Singh Chouhan, appearing for the petitioner Prof. S.K. Bhalla and Deputy Advocate General Deepika Mahajan, appearing vice Senior AAG S.S. Nanda for Revenue Department, Senior Advocate M.A. Goni with Advocate Rahul Pant appearing for newly impleaded Revenue Officials and Advocate Adarsh Sharma appearing for JDA, the Division Bench expressed its displeasure in the open court over the non-filing of the status report in terms of the directions issued by the Division Bench on the last date of hearing i.e. April, 28, 2016 when Mohammad Afzal Bhat (IAS) Commissioner/Secretary Revenue Department had appeared in person pursuant to the directions issued on April, 26, 2016 and had sought more time to file the status report after gathering the inputs from the Divisional Commissioner Jammu and the Deputy Commissioners of various Districts in Jammu Province.
When this matter came up for hearing, Advocate S.S. Ahmed submitted that the Revenue Secretary was under an obligation to file the status report with regard to two issues, one pertaining to Govt. Order No.44 Rev(S) of 2016 dated 01-04-2016 whereby the Revenue Department appointed Regional Director, Settlement and Survey Jammu as Inquiry Officer to fix the responsibility and identify the officers/officials who have tampered the revenue records of Village Sunjwan, Jammu as pointed out by the then Divisional Commissioner Jammu Shantmanu (IAS) in his inquiry report.
Advocate Ahmed further submitted that the Regional Director Settlement and Survey Jammu had been directed to submit his inquiry report/findings within a period of 15 days but despite the expiry of almost two months the inquiry report is yet to see the light of the day. He further submitted that time bound directions be issued to the Revenue Secretary and the Regional Director Settlement and Survey Jammu to produce before the Court the inquiry report which will indicate the names of the Revenue Officers/Officials involved in the tampering of the revenue record and further submitted that the Revenue Secretary as per the previous order was also under an obligation to file an updated status report with regard to the alienation of land measuring 724 Kanals situated in Village Sunjwan, Tehsil Bahu District Jammu in favour of M/s SRK Associates as the Revenue Secretary had himself found discrepancies in the inquiry report submitted by Shahid Mehmood Sub-Divisional Magistrate Jammu (South) who had been appointed as Inquiry Officer by the State Government vide Govt. Order No.151-Rev(S) of 2015 dated 07-10-2015 and had issued directions to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu vide his letter dated April, 1, 2016 to ascertain the quantum of land if any held by M/s SRK Associates in the State at the time of acquiring 724 Kanals of land and also to ascertain as to whether the conversion rate has been applied correctly by the inquiry officer while concluding that the land held by M/s SRK Associates is within the prescribed ceiling.
Advocate Ahmed further submitted that in the instant case astonishing revelations were made by none other than Shantmanu , the then Divisional Commissioner Jammu who in his inquiry report concluded that State land measuring 20 Kanals comprised in Khasra No.1442 was put to sale by apparent tampering with the records and laterally inserting under the category of private land and thereafter the then Revenue Officers/Officials posted in Tehsil Bahu issued Fards for the said State Land and Mutations No.225 J and 312 J were attested by the then Patwaries and Naib-Tehsildars concerned.
Advocate Ahmed further submitted that the matter with regard to tampering of the revenue record is under probe by the Crime Branch Jammu and two status reports have already been filed by SSP Crime Branch Jammu but till date the records were not been seized by the Crime Branch and the probe is going at snail’s pace.
After considering the submissions of Advocate S.S. Ahmed, the Division Bench granted two weeks time to Commissioner /Secretary to Govt. of J&K, Revenue Department to file updated status report in terms of the last order dated April, 28, 2016 or appear in person on the next date of hearing.
