Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Monday granted two days time to Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal, Shyambir Singh (IAS) to decide if wants to tender an apology by appearing personally before the trial court in the central Kashmir district.
Shyambir is facing criminal contempt proceedings initiated against him following a reference by Chief Judicial Magistrat(CJM) of the Ganderbal district.
“Pursuant to the opportunity given by this Court vide order dated 05.08.2024, Mr. Shyambir, Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal, has appeared before this Court and has prepared his reply,” A division bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Sanjeev Kumar said.
“The contemnor (Shyambir Singh) orally submitted before this Court that whatever he did was not intentional to undermine the dignity of the learned court (Ganderbal court),” the court noted in the order, adding, “He asked for some time to think over whether he is willing to file an affidavit of apology and personally appear before the learned court below. The case has been ordered by the High Court to list again on August 14.
Last month, a court in Ganderbal issued show-cause notice to Deputy Commissioner Shyambir as to why a reference be not made to the High Court of J&K and Ladakh for initiating contempt proceedings against him in terms of Contempt of Courts Act.
The court, Sub-judge Ganderbal, passed the order against the Deputy Commissioner for allegedly not complying with its order in a civil suit and attempting to “personally attack” him “by manipulation and fabrication”.
Subsequently, the CJM court made reference under Section 15(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act 2015 in Criminal Reference against Shyambir and issued notice to him for his appearance today.
Last month, the court of Sub-Judge Ganderbal noted that a preliminary enquiry was initiated against the contemnor Mr Shyambir and in the first instance, he was asked to a show-cause as to why a reference be not made to High Court of J&K and Ladakh for initiating contempt proceedings in terms of Contempt of Courts Act.
The sub judge has also accused Shymabir of launching an inquiry into land owned by him as “revenge” for the order regarding a land acquisition matter, in which the petitioners (two locals of the Ganderbal district) approached the 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 their favour in 2022.
In January this year, the court had directed the Deputy Commissioner to compensate the petitioners. In an order dated June 21, the court 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, the court 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 court 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.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
