IAS officer accused of ‘harassing’ judge faces criminal contempt proceedings in J&K High Court

“The contemnor shall appear in person before this Court on August 5 at 11 am sharp,” a division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Sanjeev Kumar of the J&K High Court said. “Any attempt by him to avoid service of summons or his non-appearance shall be viewed seriously by this court and the court shall resort to coercive proceedings to secure his presence.”

This order came on the back of CJM Qureshi’s allegations that Shymabir had launched an inquiry into some land he owns “lawfully” as an act of “revenge” for passing an adverse order and withholding his salary in a land acquisition case. In that case, some petitioners had approached Qureshi’s court saying they had not been compensated by the government for a piece of land that was acquired from them.

Significantly, Friday’s HC order came after Qureshi sent a criminal contempt reference against Shyambir under section 15(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act 2015. Before he sent a reference, the judge initiated a preliminary inquiry against the DC and asked him to explain why such a criminal contempt reference should not be sent to the High Court. The DC, however, did not appear before the court.

According to the CJM’s July 23 order, the judge’s January order directing Shyambir to compensate the petitioners “didn’t go well” with the bureaucrat, who “misused his official machinery and devoted time” in tracing out the documents of a property that the judge “lawfully holds”, the order says.

“Out of the steps decided to be taken by the contemnor Deputy Commissioner against the Presiding Officer, one step was to frame the presiding officer in any fabricated incident and if this is not possible, to trace out if there is any property in the name of the Judge anywhere. After putting in efforts, the contemnor Shyambir Ganderbal, could find out that there is one property in the name of the Presiding Officer purchased by the Judge before his appointment,” the order says, calling this a “clear abuse of his official position”.

After this, “as a first attack” on the judge, Qureshi said a patwari visited his land thrice under the DC’s direction, telling the caretaker of the land that the DC had constituted “a team for demarcation of the land of the judge” as the judge had “passed the order against the Deputy Commissioner and other higher officers”.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal Shymabir Singh said that since the matter is subjudice “it won’t be proper for him to comment on it”.