Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 18: In the much publicized Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting alleged hushing up of Chatta Sunjwan land scam, Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur today directed Commissioner/ Secretary Revenue Department to file his affidavit by or before April 26 indicating the present status of the enquiry ordered vide Govt. Order No.44-Rev(S) of 2016 dated April, 1, 2016.
Vide this order Regional Director Settlement and Survey Jammu was appointed as Enquiry Officer to fix the responsibility and identify the officers/officials who have tampered the revenue records of village Sunjwan as pointed out by the then Divisional Commissioner Jammu/Enquiry Officer Shantmanu in his enquiry report.
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Suraj Singh and Rahul Raina appearing for the petitioner, Senior AAGs S S Nanda and Seema Shekhar Khajooria appearing for Revenue and Crime Branch, Senior Advocate L K Sharma with Advocate Guru Partap Singh appearing for M/s SRK Associates and Senior Advocate M A Goni with Advocate Ajay Singh Kotwal, the Division Bench expressed displeasure over the slow progress in the enquiry and directed Senior AAG S S Nanda to file the personal affidavit of Revenue Secretary to indicate the latest progress of the enquiry already ordered by the State Government.
Earlier, when the matter came up for consideration, Advocate S S Ahmed appearing for the petitioner drew the attention of the Division Bench to the last order passed by the Division Bench on March, 28, 2016 whereby the Division Bench had sought the Action Taken Report from Secretary Revenue and also the latest status of Crime Branch probe.
Advocate Ahmed submitted that Commissioner/ Secretary Revenue has filed two status reports wherein it is disclosed that vide Govt Order No.44-Rev (S) of 2016 dated April, 1, 2016 Regional Director Settlement and Survey Jammu was appointed as Enquiry Officer to fix the responsibility and identify the officers/officials who have tampered the revenue records of village Sunjwan. He said submitted that according to this order the Enquiry Officer had to submit report/findings within a period of 15 days. However, till date the Revenue Department has not informed the Enquiry Officer about the order and the enquiry has not commenced so far.
At this stage, the Division Bench put a specific query to Senior AAG S S Nanda as to what is the present status of both the enquiries and as to whether the enquiries have been completed or not. The Senior AAG, however, sought two weeks time to respond to the query made by the Division Bench. Upon this, Division Bench, in the open court, expressed displeasure and deferred the matter till April 26 by directing the Secretary Revenue to file the affidavit indicating the progress in the enquiry.
Senior Advocate L K Sharma with Advocate Guru Partap Singh sought the closure of the PIL and strenuously argued that media trial is going on and M/s SRK Associates has been sandwiched between the petitioner and the State respondents. Senior Counsel further submitted that the land in question is a proprietary land and not the State land.
Senior Advocate M A Goni with Advocates Rahul Pant and Ajay Singh Kotwal appearing for newly impleaded Revenue officers/ officials sought detailed hearing in the matter and submitted that he has filed a detailed counter affidavit in the matter which needs consideration of the court. Senior Advocate Goni further submitted that matter is getting publicity in the media which is damaging the reputation of the concerned revenue officers/officials. He sought the closure of the PIL.
However, they failed to get any reprieve vis-à-vis restricting media from highlight the proceedings in the PIL and closure of the petition.
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