Srinagar, August 12, KDC: Observing that courts cannot stifle or truncate an ongoing corruption investigation into wider administrative irregularities, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has dismissed a petition filed by a retired General Manager of the District Industries Centre (DIC) Pulwama seeking to quash an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) FIR registered against him over alleged illegal industrial land allotments.
A Bench of Justice Shahzad Azeem, according to news agency Kashmir Dot Com, dismissed the petition filed by Laiq Parvez, a resident of Hyderpora Srinagar who served as GM DIC Pulwama from June 2017 to February 2018. The petitioner had challenged FIR No. 03/2020 registered by Police Station ACB South Kashmir under Section 5(1)(d) read with 5(2) of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC).
The case originated from a complaint lodged by Mukhtiyar Yousuf, President of the Federation of Chambers of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), alleging that DIC Pulwama had turned into a hub of corruption. A subsequent ACB verification revealed that the petitioner, during his tenure, made as many as 48 industrial land allotments and executed lease deeds in violation of the Industrial Policy 2016 and its 2017 Procedural Guidelines.
Senior counsel R. A. Jan, appearing alongside advocate Safa Aziz for the petitioner, argued that under Clauses 2.12.1 and 4.2.2 of the 2016 Policy, the GM DIC possessed full statutory competence to allot land and execute lease deeds for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with investments up to ₹5 crore. He contended that the petitioner acted strictly within his powers and that the probe lacked any “reason to suspect” criminal misconduct.
Contesting the plea, Senior Additional Advocate General Mohsin Qadiri, assisted by Maha Majeed and Haris Khan, produced the official case diary and status reports. The prosecution highlighted that the industrial estates at Pulwama and Chatpora had already been officially transferred and handed over to the Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited (SICOP) in April 2017, prior to the petitioner taking charge.
The ACB further submitted that departmental and expert inquiries uncovered irregularities in approximately 62 units, revealing that physical applications were accepted contrary to the mandatory online process and that several land allotments were executed without mandatory Single Window Clearance Committee (SWCC) approvals.
Perusing the case diary, Justice Shahzad Azeem noted that the petitioner went ahead and allotted plots from industrial land that had already passed out of DIC control and into SICOP’s possession.
“The distinction sought to be drawn between industrial estates available with DIC and those at the disposal of SICOP/SIDCO becomes wholly irrelevant in view of the factual narration emerging from the case diary, which unequivocally shows that petitioner even ventured to allot industrial estates which had already been transferred to SICOP,” the Bench said.
Rejecting the argument that the petition should be quashed at the threshold, the High Court stressed that assessing criminal intent and procedural flouting requires a full investigation rather than a premature mini-trial.
“In the given facts and circumstances, to stifle investigation would amount to putting a premium on the alleged acts when the investigation has been carried into different aspects involving a huge chunk of land earmarked for establishment of the industries, which, for alleged extraneous reasons, came to be allotted by flouting the norms and the policy… To hold otherwise would amount to truncating an investigation which is looking into wider aspects of the matter,” the Court said.
Pointing out that the ACB is currently probing interlinked roles of beneficiary unit holders, SICOP officials, and former DIC officers whose signatures matched under Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) examination, the Bench found no merit in the petition and directed the return of the case diary for the investigation to reach its logical conclusion. (KDC)
