Criminal contempt case: J&K High Court grants two days to IAS officer to decide on submitting apology

Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh on Monday granted two days' time to Ganderbal deputy commissioner Shyambir Singh to decide if he was willing to submit an affidavit of apology to a subordinate court in a criminal contempt case.

A division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Sanjeev Kumar, while granting two days to Singh for making up his mind, listed the case for hearing on August 14.

"The contemnor orally submitted in this court that whatever he did was not intentional to undermine the dignity of the learned court. He asked for some time to think over whether he is willing to file an affidavit of apology and personally appear before the court below," the division bench said in the order passed after Monday's proceedings.

On August 5, the high court directed Singh to answer the charges of criminal contempt against him in person.

The proceedings against Singh, a 2018-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer serving as deputy commissioner of Ganderbal since 2022, were initiated after allegations surfaced that he had retaliated against Ganderbal sub-judge Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi and allegedly abused his official position to intimidate and harass him.

Qureshi had passed an order to attach Singh's salary due to non-compliance with an October 2022 judgment.

According to the sub-judge, the deputy commissioner allegedly misused his position to harass him, including unauthorised visits to his property by government officials.

This was perceived as an attempt to undermine judicial authority and retaliate against the court's decision.

In ordering the criminal contempt proceedings last month, Qureshi also recommended that the Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary take administrative action against Singh under the Government Conduct Rules, 1971, describing him as a "constant potential threat" to the judiciary.