Srinagar: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has directed the Registry to forward a vigilance report to the Chief Secretary for appropriate legal action against a former member of the J&K Special Tribunal after an inquiry found that 65 cases involving major building violations were compounded for extraneous consideration and in violation of law.
The direction was issued by a Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Mohammad Yousuf Wani while closing a Public Interest Litigation concerning alleged rampant violations of building by-laws in Gogji Bagh, Srinagar.
The court, in its order dated August 18, said that during the proceedings in the PIL, it came to its notice that a particular member of the J&K Special Tribunal had passed “several orders, about 65 in number in a row, compounding the major violations.”
The matter had led the High Court to order a fact-finding inquiry by the Registrar Vigilance on November 20, 2020.
The Registrar Vigilance subsequently submitted a detailed report dated April 5, 2021.
The High Court recorded the conclusion of the vigilance inquiry in categorical terms.
“The Registrar Vigilance has submitted its report with his conclusion that all the 65 matters were compounded by the then Member of the Tribunal for extraneous consideration, in that, the major violations were permitted to be compounded in violation of law,” the Bench recorded.
Taking note of the finding, the court directed its Registry to forward the Registrar Vigilance report dated April 5, 2021, to the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir “for taking appropriate legal action against the erring public servant.”
The Bench further recorded that the concerned public servant was “prima facie found guilty of violating the law and compounding the major violations for extraneous considerations.”
The finding assumes significance as it concerns the exercise of statutory powers by a member of a specialised judicial forum dealing with building and other regulatory violations.
The High Court, however, has directed appropriate legal action on the basis of the vigilance report rather than itself determining the final culpability of the former Tribunal member.
The PIL was initiated by Dr Abdul Rouf Malik, claiming to represent inhabitants of Gogji Bagh, and raised concerns over the erection and re-erection of residential and commercial buildings and complexes allegedly in gross violation of building by-laws.
During the proceedings, the petitioners’ counsel informed the court that, following its intervention, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation had issued notices to persons responsible for allegedly violating the building bye-laws.
The aggrieved persons subsequently approached the J&K Special Tribunal, and the matter is now pending before a Single Judge of the High Court at the instance of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
Since the primary grievance raised in the PIL was thus being addressed in separate proceedings, the Bench decided not to continue with the PIL.
The court, nevertheless, considered it necessary to act on the findings concerning the 65 cases.
With the direction for forwarding the vigilance report to the Chief Secretary, the PIL was formally closed.
