Srinagar, Jun 22: The court of Sub Judge Ganderbal has directed warrants of arrest (bailable) and stoppage of salary of some senior bureaucrats including Commissioner Secretary Revenue; Commissioner Secretary, Roads & Buildings, and many others for noncompliance of a 2022 decree that directed award of compensation to two Gujjar families in the district.
The bailable warrant was directed in a case filed by Noor Mohammad Gojar Chichi and Ghulam Hassan Gojar Chichi of Chountwar Lar, Ganderbal.
The court had in October 2022 passed a decree directing the concerned officers to compensate the two families whose land had come under a project of road construction in the area.
Anguished at the noncompliance of the orders passed after a long trail in favour of the poor Gujjar families, Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi, the Sub-judge Ganderbal, said that the public functionaries are yet to comply with the judgment.
“They seem to fiddle with the legal process,” he said, adding that the court has been left with no other option but to take coercive measures.
The court took course to order 21 Rule 30 CPC which sends the judgment debtors to civil prison or attaches their assets, or both.
The court accordingly directed the police to issue bailable warrants against all the judgment debtors including Commissioner Secretary Revenue, Civil Secretariat Srinagar; Commissioner Secretary, R&B Department, Civil Secretariat Srinagar; Collector Land Acquisition, Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal, Tehsildar Lar, Chief Engineer R&B Rajbagh, Srinagar and Executive Engineer R&B Division Ganderbal.
The warrants have been directed to be issued to the tune of Rs 50,000 and the DIG Central has been tasked “to execute the warrant positively without any failure”.
DIG Central was directed that in case the judgment debtors (officers) do not or fail to furnish bail bonds, “they shall be taken into custody and produced before this court”.
Simultaneously, the court directed to “attach the salary of all the judgment debtors to ensure that the judgment and decree is complied with and the decree holders reap the fruits of the judgment and decree which they have obtained”.
The concerned Drawing and Disbursing Officers and the Treasury Officers were also directed to “not release the salary of all the judgment debtors till further orders or till judgment and decree is complied with so as to instill a sense of discipline for compliance with court orders and seek enforcement of the judgment and decree passed by this court”.
The court observed that the official functionaries and public servants should behave as law-abiding and peace-loving citizens.
“Any dereliction or lapse on their part cannot be viewed lightly, and that as public servants, the defendants are under legal, statutory and constitutional duty to uphold the law of the land and follow the direction of the court,” noted the judge.
“However, they have failed and no sufficient reason has been given for non-compliance, forcing the decree holders to move from pillar to post to seek execution of the judgment and decree passed in their favour,” he remarked.
