Arms licence scam: HC seeks MHA’s decision on prosecution of IAS officers

A Division Bench (DB) of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh (Jammu Bench), comprising Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice MA Chowdhary, has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to communicate its final decision on the prosecution of IAS officers allegedly involved in the fake arms licence scam.

The directive was issued while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Sheikh Mohammad Shafi & Anr v Union of India & Ors, in which the petitioners highlighted the delay in forwarding prosecution sanction proposals for eight IAS officers. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), after completing its probe, had sought prosecution sanction to file chargesheets in designated CBI courts.

During the hearing, Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, along with Advocates Rahul Raina, Supriya Chouhan and M Zulkarnain Chowdhary, pointed out that despite an order dated January 2, 2025, granting MHA time to file a status report, no action had been taken. The J&K Government had forwarded a prosecution sanction proposal for three IAS officers — Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Niraj Kumar and Yasha Mudgal — to the MHA on December 27, 2024.

Advocate Ahmed argued that both the MHA and the J&K Government were deliberately delaying the process to shield high-profile officials, even though the CBI had prima facie established a case against them after an in-depth investigation.

The Division Bench directed Advocate Sumant Sudan, appearing on behalf of Deputy Solicitor General of India (DSGI) Vishal Sharma for the MHA/DoPT, to submit a status report on the prosecution sanction decision. The case has been re-listed for hearing on March 20.