JAMMU, Feb 24: Justice Javed Iqbal Wani has directed the Jammu and Kashmir Government to grant all consequential service benefits, including promotions and arrears, to senior officer Bhumesh Sharma (JKAS) whose premature retirement had already been quashed up to the level of the Supreme Court.
Court added that despite succeeding before every judicial forum, the officer was forced into a nearly decade-long struggle merely to secure implementation of a binding court decree as in the year 2015 when the Government prematurely retired the officer.
The retirement was challenged before the High Court, which in February 2017 quashed the order and directed reinstatement with all consequential benefits within one month but as usual to cause harassment to innocent employees for more time & to waste public taxes money & to show its super powers above Law & Rules, Government’s appeal before a Division Bench and subsequent Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court were dismissed and the judgment attained finality in July 2023.
However, instead of implementing the ruling in full, the administration issued an order in September 2023 rescinding the retirement but made consequential benefits subject to departmental proceedings, just to cause more harassment to the officer.
But, when, complete compliance was not forthcoming, contempt proceedings were initiated against the Commissioner/ Secretary, General Administration Department & Authorities repeatedly relied upon old vigilance inquiries and FIRs without showing existence of any pending proceedings.
The court concluded that reliance on closed matters appeared to be an attempt to frustrate implementation of the judgment. During contempt proceedings, the officer submitted that despite reinstatement he was not assigned proper duties and his promotion was not considered in parity with juniors.
The High Court, however, found that no legally sustainable inquiry existed and the officer’s case had not been properly placed before the Establishment-cum-Selection Committee.
The Committee later declared him unfit without recording reasons, benchmark assessment or comparative evaluation & other additions/alterations, a decision the court described as a bare conclusion unsupported by record.
The court ruled that such action violated settled principles of service jurisprudence, emphasizing that an employee cannot be perpetually haunted by accusations that never matured into guilt.
Justice Wani observed that judicial victories cannot be converted into a mirage through administrative innovation and that consequential benefits are substantive rights, not ornamental words.
Court added that once premature retirement is quashed, the law treats it as if it never existed & further added that administrative discretion cannot be used to neutralize judicial mandates.
Holding that the sequence of events created a deeply disquieting inference of coordinated administrative action aimed at defeating the judicial decree, the High Court declared the Selection Committee’s decision declaring the officer unfit as arbitrary, unreasoned, legally unsustainable and void ab initio.
The court directed the Government to grant complete consequential benefits, including notional promotions, release of pending grades, correction of seniority, pay fixation, arrears of salary and other service benefits, excluding reliance on quashed or unsubstantiated allegations & entire exercise has been ordered to be completed within eight weeks from service of the judgment.
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