Court asks Jammu & Kashmir govt to submit report in arms licence scam
Jammu, August 24
Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court Division Bench led by Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice MA Chowdhary has asked the UT government to submit the latest report on two cases filed by Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) investigation into the widely publicised fake arms licence case.
The court noted that the government had not fulfilled its previous directive to submit the latest status report on prosecution sanctions for the two cases.
Advocates SS Ahmed and Rahul Raina, representing the petitioner in a PIL, highlighted that the government of J&K had not complied with the court’s previous order from June 2. The court had instructed the Advocate General DC Raina and Senior Additional Advocate General (AAG) SS Nanda to file the latest status report regarding two FIRs by CBI.
The latest report has been sought by the bench in two FIRs wherein Department of Personnel and Training’s (DPoT), GOI, had in April 2021 requested the J&K government to rectify deficiencies and resubmit the prosecution sanction proposal against IAS officers through a single window system.
The CBI had previously conducted raids on the residences of retired and in-service IAS officers in J&K, who were allegedly involved in a scam where over 2.78 lakh gun licences were wrongly issued. The court had set a deadline for the administration to submit the latest report by July 26.
Advocate Ahmed argued that despite the passage of a long time, the government had not followed the court’s directions regarding the arms licence scam.
He also noted that while sanction for JKAS officers had been granted, the government was not resubmitting the prosecution sanction proposal to the DPoT for IAS officers.
SS Nanda appearing for government of J&K prayed for two-week time to comply with the directions issued by the Division Bench on June 2.
The Division Bench after hearing both the sides observed, “Needful in terms of order dated June 2, 2023 has not been done. Two weeks further time is granted to the respondents for doing the needful.”
