Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 17: State High Court today began hearing in the petitions challenging compulsory retirement of officers from the State administration by declaring them as deadwood.
In the jam-packed court of Justice B S Walia, the hearing began in the much publicized cases of those officers and officials, who were shown the doors by the Government by declaring them as deadwood.
Advocate Abhinav Sharma appearing for Sher Singh, the then Naib Tehsildar, submitted that the procedure prescribed under Article 226 of the J&K Civil Services Rules was completely bypassed by the Government while compulsory retiring the petitioner.
He further submitted that all along the petitioner has been maintaining good service record.
Referring to Sub-Rule 4 of the Article 226, Advocate Sharma said, “under this Sub-Rule, the advance notice is mandatorily required to be issued to the employee for filing his response”, adding “had the notice been issued to the petitioner he would have dispelled the impression gathering by the review committee”.
“The FIR registered against petitioner in April 2014 regarding alleged Disproportionate Assets has been made sole basis for showing the doors to Sher Singh. But the fact is that no headway has been made in this FIR till date except submission of questionnaire to the petitioner by the investigating agency”, Advocate Sharma said.
Referring to judgments of the Supreme Court and High Court, Advocate Sharma said that mere registration of case was no ground for declaring the petitioner as deadwood.
Advocate General Jehangir Iqbal Ganaie along with Advocate Ahtsham Bhat submitted that notice under Sub-Rule 4 was not mandatory. They submitted that relevant record would be placed before the court tomorrow.
In another case titled Satish Khajuria Versus State of J&K, the High Court reserved judgment after hearing the arguments of both the sides. In this case, Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi appeared for Satish Khajuria, the then Chief Enforcement Officer, JMC and Senior AAG S S Nanda appeared for Housing and Urban Development Department.
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