Jammu and Kashmir judge says Deputy Commissioner tried to implicate him in false case as revenge for order withholding his salary

The issue pertains to a case regarding land acquisition, in which the petitioners approached Qureshi’s court saying they were not compensated by the government after it acquired land from them, even though a decree in this regard was issued in 2022.

In January this year, the sub-judge passed an order directing the Deputy Commissioner to compensate the petitioners. In an order dated June 21, the judge said that the DC had not acted on the January order, and directed that his and other officials’ salaries be withheld.

In the latest order, issued on July 23, sub-judge Qureshi said that his previous order “didn’t go well with Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal, namely Mr Shyambir, who attempted to personally attack the Presiding Officer (the sub-judge) by scandalising him and weakening him by manipulation and fabrication, and for this purpose, he called a meeting immediately after the order and conspired with some other officers/officials of the district to implicate the Presiding Officer of the court for passing a lawful order against the judgment-debtors”.

The judge accused Shyambir of launching a vindictive investigation to “implicate” him in a false case. “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,” the July 23 order said.

The judge said the DC found out that he had two kanals of land in Ganderbal, and that the DC “misused his official machinery and devoted time in tracing out the documents of the property, which the Presiding Officer lawfully holds”. After this, “as a first attack” on the judge, Qureshi said a patwari visited his land thrice under the DC’s direction. He said the patwari told 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”.

In his order, the judge asked the Chief Secretary to initiate administrative action against the Deputy Commissioner and transfer him.

The order also said that as the Deputy Commissioner may “try to implicate the judge in some false and frivolous”, the DC has been issued a notice to explain why he should not be referred to the High Court for criminal contempt.