Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh on Friday summoned Ganderbal deputy commissioner Shyambir Singh in an alleged criminal contempt case and directed him to appear before it in person on August 5.
A division bench of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh issued a notice to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ganderbal for contempting sub judge/Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) and also warned of coercive measures for non-appearance of the DC before the bench on Monday.
Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi, holding the charges of subjudge and CJM Ganderbal, had initiated a preliminary inquest for criminal contempt against the DC, Shyambir Singh, for not complying with an earlier court order and attempting to “personally attack the judge by manipulation and fabrication”.
Justices Atul Sreedharan and Sanjeev Kumar, acting on the intimation made under Section 15(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act 2015, made by the subjudge/CJM in criminal reference against Shyambir, Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal, and directed a notice to the contemnor, Shyambir Singh by Humdast.
“The contemnor shall appear in person before this court on Monday i.e., 5th August 2024 at 11:00 am sharp. Any attempt by him to avoid service of summons or his nonappearance shall be viewed seriously by this court and the court shall resort to coercive proceedings to secure his presence,” warned the bench.
It also requested senior counsel, R A Jan to assist this court as an amicus and listed the matter for further proceedings on Monday, August 05, 2024.
The judge had accused Shyambir Singh, the DC Ganderbal, of launching an inquiry into land owned by him as “revenge” for an earlier order passed by the court against the officer for non-compliance of an order of compensation to the Gujjar families in the district.
The judge had also asked the DC to explain why he should not be referred to the J&K High Court for criminal contempt proceedings.
Putting the matter before J&K Chief Secretary Atul Dulloo, the judge had also recommended administrative action against DC.
The issue arose out of a June 2024 order by judge Qureshi that directed warrants of arrest (bailable) and stoppage of salary of some senior bureaucrats including Commissioner Secretary, Revenue; Commissioner Secretary, Roads & Buildings; DC Ganderbal and many others for noncompliance of a 2022 decree that directed award of compensation to two Gujjar families in the district.
The bailable warrant and stoppage of salary was directed in the case filed by Noor Mohammad Gujjar Chichi and Ghulam Hassan Gujjar 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 trial in favour of the poor Gujjar families, the judge had remarked that the public functionaries were yet to comply with the judgment.
“They seem to fiddle with the legal process,” he had 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, DC Ganderbal, Tehsildar Lar, Chief Engineer R&B Rajbagh, Srinagar and Executive Engineer R&B Division Ganderbal.
The warrants were 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 had 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.
