IAS officer facing contempt proceedings tenders apology

Our Correspondent

Srinagar, August 13

An IAS officer facing contempt of court proceedings before the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh tendered a written apology in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ganderbal on Tuesday. Ganderbal Deputy Commissioner Shyambir Singh submitted an affidavit in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi, tendering his sincere apology.

Singh appeared before the court and verbally reaffirmed the apology, the CJM noted in his order and forwarded the case file to the high court for disposal. Singh also submitted that he did not intend to interfere with the administration of justice and would abide by court orders.

The high court had on Monday granted two days to Singh to decide whether he would like to submit an affidavit of apology to a subordinate court in the criminal contempt case. A Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Sanjeev Kumar of the High Court while listing the case for August 14 had given time to Singh to decide if he was willing to submit an affidavit of apology to a subordinate court in a criminal contempt case.

“A written apology in the form of affidavit has been filed stating therein that there has never been any deliberate or wilful attempt to interfere with the administration of justice and that in view of the contempt proceedings drawn by the Hon’ble Court of Ld. Sub-Judge/Chief Judicial Magistrate Ganderbal against the deponent, the deponent therein tenders his sincere apology in the instant matter,” the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ganderbal, said in its Tuesday order.

The proceedings against the 2018 batch IAS officer started after allegations surfaced that the officer had launched an investigation as a “revenge” after the judge passed an order against the DC. The judge had directed to “attach the salary” of the Deputy Commissioner for not complying with the judgement in a case.

The Tuesday order further added, “…the respondent verbally reaffirmed that he is tendering the apology sincerely and he undertakes that he will not cause any interference in the judicial functions and will always respect the courts of law. The apology has been placed on file and a copy of the same is submitted to Hon’ble High Court of J&K and Ladakh for further kind orders in light of the apology tendered before this court.”

The High Court had recently summoned Singh in a contempt case and asked him to appear personally before the court. Earlier, the Ganderbal court had initiated preliminary inquiry for criminal contempt against the officer for attempting to “personally attack” the judge by “scandalizing him and weakening him by manipulation and fabrication.” The high court received a reference of criminal contempt against the IAS officer from the Ganderbal court.