Directs to complete the trial in six months
NL Correspondent
Jammu Tawi, Mar 31
In a significant Judgment, Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta of Jammu and Kashmir High Court (Jammu Wing) has dismissed three petitions filed by seven accused, namely (i) Gurdeep Singh then Timber Passing Officer Jammu (DFO), (ii) Ghulam Mohd. Khan the then Forester posted under Timber Passing Officer Jammu, (iii) Sheikh Farooq of M/s J.K. Wood Products, (iv) Mohd. Farooq Ganai of M/s Farooq & Co., (v) Baldev Singh Syal of M/s Syal Enterprises, (vi) Mushtaq Ahmed Chaya of M/s Classic Timber Traders and (vii) Kuldeep Singh of M/s National Timber Traders, challenging order dated February, 12, 2007 passed by then CJM Jammu whereby the aforementioned accused were charge sheeted under Section 420/511, 468, 471 read with 120-B RPC in a challan presented by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in FIR No.RC004-2005 A 0012 dated October, 1, 2005.
After hearing Senior Advocate Z.A. Shah with Advocate Jagpal Singh, Advocate B.R. Chandan, Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi with Advocate Mohsin Bhat appearing for the petitioners/accused timber traders whereas Advocate Monika Kohli appearing for CBI, Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta after referring several Judgments of the Supreme Court held that already more than 12 years have passed so trial court shall decide the matter expeditiously preferably within six months. The court further directed that no casual adjournment shall be granted by the court below and prosecution is directed to take effective steps in producing witnesses.
While dismissing the three petitions Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta observed that vide order dated September, 12, 2005 passed by the State High Court in PIL No.24/2005 titled Rattan Singh Gill V/s State of J&K & Ors the Central Bureau of Investigation was directed to register a case on the basis of FIR No.24/05 dated 02-07-2005 registered initially by Police Station Crime Branch Jammu. The case was registered on the complaint of Vijay Kumar Gupta a retired Forest Officer son of Manga Ram Gupta resident of Trikuta Nagar, Jammu.
In the complaint it was alleged that against order of ‘A' Grade timber, the officers of Forest Department pass ‘C' Grade timber, that against supply of Deodar the officers of Forest Department dispatch Fir which is 1/8th of price of Deodar, that officers of Forest Department accept Fir Chir against Deodar from the contractors (timber merchants) and for showing this favour the officers of Forest Department are accepting 10% commission of the total value of timber that the timber merchants are supplying only 7 sleepers in 1 Cu.mt. whereas 1 cu.mt. must contains 10 sleepers and thus the officers of Forest Department are accepting only 60-70% of the volume of the total supply and that the officers of the Quality Control Department of the Army accept ‘C' Grade timber against the order of ‘A' Grade and for showing this favour, they accept 10% of the value of the timber as commission from the timber merchants.
It may be recalled that the Division Bench of the State High Court then headed by acting Chief Justice V.K. Jhanji had passed several orders in PIL No.24/2005 titled Rattan Singh Gill V/s State of J&K & Ors including constitution of an expert committee of the Forest Officers for examining the quality/quantity of the timber which was intercepted by the investigating agency by intercepting 14 Railways wagons and upon examination by the committee it was found that out of 5420 scants found in 14 wagons, 122 scants were found substandard by the Committee members. It was found that accused Gurdeep Singh then Timber Passing Officer Jammu and accused Gh. Mohd. Khan then Forester dishonestly and fraudulently had passed all the timber so dispatched which included 122 substandard scants.
After completion of investigation the CBI presented the challan against the above-referred accused in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Jammu and the then CJM Jammu vide his order dated February, 12, 2007 framed the charges under Section 420/511, 468/471 read with 120-B RPC against the accused mentioned hereinabove.
Against the framing of charges the seven accused through three petitions filed under Section 561-A CrPC sought the quashing of the order dated February, 12, 2007 alongwith the entire proceedings before the State High Court and initially the proceedings had been stayed by the High Court and the trial was stayed for more than 12 years.
However Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta of J&K High Court (Jammu Wing) in a significant Judgment dismissed all the three petitions by upholding the framing of charges by the CJM Jammu and vacated the stay order initially granted and directed the court below to decide the matter preferably within six months and further directed that no casual adjournment shall be granted by court below.
With these observations and directions Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta dismissed three petitions and upheld the order of court below.
