Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 24: Describing the statement made by the Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, in response to a notice as false and misleading, the State Accountability Commission (SAC) comprising Chairperson Justice (retd) Y P Nargotra and member Justice (retd) Hakim Imtiyaz, today made out a case for initiating contempt proceedings under the Jammu and Kashmir Contempt of Court Act, 1997, against him and directed the Minister to file his statement of defence, if any, by the next date of hearing.
On November 28, 2012, the Minister had issued a statement claiming that Accountability Commission in September 2005 and Vigilance Organization, Kashmir in the year 2011 had conveyed to the Government that no forest-land was grabbed by him in Sedhav forests in Shopian district of South Kashmir.
After going through the Minister’s statement, the State Accountability Commission called reports from its Deputy Registrar, Srinagar and Assistant Registrar, Jammu in order to verify the factual correctness of the statement. The perusal of the record revealed that the statement made by the Minister was false.
Accordingly, the Accountability Commission issued notice to the Minister to appear in person to show case as to why proceedings for commission of contempt in terms of Section 20 of the J&K Accountability Commission Act may not be initiated against him.
On December 17, 2012, the Minister appeared before the Commission and explained his position in response to the Commission’s notice issued on December 8, 2012. After hearing the arguments of the Minister and his counsel, the Accountability Commission reserved the decision till December 24, 2012.
In the 6-page order issued today, the Accountability Commission said, “the Minister in his response filed for explaining his position, in the first place submitted that no hand out had been issued to the press but a Demi-Official (DO) letter was addressed to the Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology wherein a request was made by him for constituting a joint demarcation committee of Revenue/Forest Departments to demarcate the land under reference”.
“We have perused the DO letter. There is an averment in the letter that the issue under reference stands looked into by the Accountability Commission in September 2005 and probed by Vigilance Organization, Kashmir in the year 2011 conveying that there is no forest land grabbed”, the SAC observed.
When the Commission asked the Minister to explain how he could have made such a claim when in the records of the Commission there is nothing to suggest that the allegations of land grabbing were ever looked into or probed by the Commission, the Minister and his counsel S M Choudhary submitted that on the basis of some news-items as well as information received from the then Tehsildar Shopian Ghulam Hassan Rather, the respondent assumed and concluded that the complaint against him must have been looked into by the Accountability Commission.
“We are not impressed by the reply of the respondent. Simply because some newspapers carried a news-item mentioning that audience was given to the residents of Shopian by the then Chairperson of the Commission, Justice R P Sethi, coupled with some inquiry conducted by the Tehsildar Shopian, the respondent could not have validly and legally assumed that a complaint had been in fact entertained by the Commission and dismissed”, the SAC order said, adding “before arriving at such a conclusion, the Minister ought to have verified the facts from the records of the Commission. The statement made by him thus on the face of it appears to be false and misleading”.
“Therefore, a case for initiating contempt proceedings under the Jammu and Kashmir Contempt of Courts Act, 1997 is made out against the respondent”, the SAC observed and issued notice to the respondent for committing contempt of the Accountability Commission with the direction to file his statement of defence, if any, by the next date of hearing.
The SAC has also requested the Advocate General to appear in the case on behalf of the State for assisting the Commission in the prosecution of the matter. The case will be listed on January 4, 2013.
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