Bar Association plea gets PIL treatment

While the J&K High Court treated a petition on the sex racket filed by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), two senior police officers allegedly involved in the racket have been taken off active duty . Justice Hakim Imtiyaz, who heard HCBA’s counsel in the case, referred the petition to Chief Justice Bashir Ahmed Khan who, in turn, listed the case before a Division Bench, association’s president Mian Abdul Qayoom said.

‘‘The court agreed with the argument that our petition in the sex racket case should be treated as a PIL and listed before a Division Bench as per legal precedence.” The court on May 9 clubbed the PIL filed by the HCBA and suo motu cognizance of media reports about the sex racket taken by Justice B A Kirmani and listed the matter for May 10. However, HCBA members stopped work to protest the government’s decision not to reveal the names of those allegedly involved in the sex racket and the listing of its PIL before a particular judge.

Meanwhile, under pressure from the public to take swift action against those involved in the racket, two senior officers were today attached to offices of superiors. Superintendent of Police Baramulla Ashkoor Wani and Superintendent of Police Kupwara Sunil Dutt were attached with the inspectors general of police for Kashmir and Jammu, respectively, a police spokesman said.

The decision to take the two police officers off active duty was taken at a six-hour Cabinet meeting last night, which also decided on a reshuffle of middle-rung officers. Thirty-two police and 25 civil officials, including eight deputy commissioners, were affected by the reshuffle. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.