The high court is hearing the case of the IAS officer’s contempt of chief judicial magistrate Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi in Ganderbal for not complying with an earlier order of the CJM and “attempting to attack” him personally by “scandalising him”
In the criminal contempt case against deputy commissioner of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, the officer Shyambir on Monday sought time before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to decide whether he was willing to file an affidavit of apology before the concerned chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court.
The high court is hearing the case of the IAS officer’s contempt of chief judicial magistrate Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi in Ganderbal for not complying with an earlier order of the CJM and “attempting to attack” him personally by “scandalising him”. The court had given the IAS officer a week’s time to reply.
The officer told Justices Atul Sreedharan and Sanjeev Kumar that he has prepared his reply which will be filed before the registry during the day. “The contemnor orally submitted before this court that whatever he did was not intentional to undermine the dignity of the learned court,” the order by the justices read.
It said that the officer has sought time to think whether he will file an affidavit of apology before the concerned court.
“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. A copy of the reply has been furnished to the learned Amicus Curiae in the open Court,” the order said, listing the case for August 14.
The IAS officer was summoned by the high court on August 2 to appear in person a day after CJM/sub-judge of Ganderbal, Qureshi had referred the matter to the HC for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against the said officer.
Last month, the sub-judge had initiated a preliminary inquiry for criminal contempt against the officer for not complying with an earlier order and attempting to attack the judge personally.
The deputy commissioner Ganderbal had allegedly attempted to take ‘revenge’ on the CJM Qureshi by initiating inquiry into land owned by him in retaliation against an earlier order in June. The judge, in his June order, had ordered to withhold the officer’s salary for non-compliance of a court order issued with regard to a compensation case.
The sub-judge, after initiating a preliminary inquiry for contempt against the officer last month on July 23, on Thursday referred the matter to high court as the officer “neither appeared before the court nor furnished his reply” despite giving him “sufficient opportunities”.
Qureshi, in the July 23 order, stated that his previous order “didn’t go well with Mr Shyambir, who attempted to personally attack the presiding officer (the sub-judge) by scandalising him and weakening him by manipulation and fabrication”.
It said that the DC “misused his official machinery and devoted time in tracing out the documents of the property”, which he “lawfully holds” and then a patwari visited his land thrice who told the caretaker of the land that the DC had constituted “a team for demarcation of the land of the judge” after he had “passed the order against the deputy commissioner and other higher officers”.
