SHAH LATIF Vs. STATE AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this writ petition, filed under Article 226,read with sec.103 of the constitution of J&K, the petitioner is calling in question the validity of the Government order dated 9,12.2003 by which he has been compulsorily retired from service. The service profile of the petitioner is that he came to be appointed as Tehsildar in November 1977 in J&K Revenue service after having been declared successful in Combined Competitive Examination conducted by the J&K Public Service Commission. He was promoted to the post of Assistant Commissioner in May 1986 and to the post of Addl. Deputy Commissioner in November 1995. In December 1996 he was posted as Deputy Commissioner Kupwara and in February 1999 as Deputy Commissioner Pulwama. In February 2002 he was appointed as Director Rural Sanitation Jammu from which post he has been compulsorily retired.

(2.) On the basis of the newspaper cutting attached with the petition it is alleged that on the floor of Legislative Assembly, on the demand of the opposition in the Budget Session 2003, a list containing names of the officers, including IAS/IPS/IFS officers against whom corruption cases were pending in Courts or were under investigation, was tabled. The petitioner was one of them against whom FIR No.19/2001 stood registered with the Vigilance organization Kashmir on the allegation that he in connivance with his staff had made disbursement of ex-gratia amounts for non-existent structures and for such structures which were not migrant properties, during his posting as Dy. Commissioner Kupwara. It was also stated in the news item published by Daily Excelsior in its issued dated 4.12.2003 that in a bid to check corruption in bureaucracy State Cabinet has empowered the Chief Minister to sanction termination of the tainted public servants including Gazetted Officers in the State. Same paper in its issued dated 11.12.2003 carried a news item that to remove the deadwood and tainted public servants from the administration the State Government has retired 15 Government Officers (which includes the petitioner also) in exercise of its powers vested in it under Art. 226(2) of the J&K C.S.R.

(3.) The petitioner has been compulsorily retired vide Government order No-1546-GAD of 2003 dated 9.12.2003 which reads as follows:-