Law & Justice

J&K High Court Rejects IAS Officers’ Plea to Join Gun Licence Scam PIL

By Arun Sharma

The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court dismissed a plea by two senior IAS officers to join a public interest litigation (PIL) that questioned the delay in granting prosecution sanction to eight IAS officers accused by the CBI of issuing thousands of gun licences in violation of rules. The officers, Panduran Kondbaroa Pole and Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, both AGMUT cadre, sought to be named as parties in the PIL and requested the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to consider their representations and apply independent judgment before deciding on prosecution sanction. The court found no basis for issuing such directions and declared the application withdrawn. The CBI’s investigation covers 274,000 to 278,000 licences issued between 2012 and 2016, allegedly in collusion with middlemen and gun dealers. Of the nine officers named by the CBI, only Kumar Rajeev Ranjan has received prosecution sanction; the others, including Pole and Choudhary, remain pending. The court also directed Deputy Solicitor General Vishal Sharma to submit a report on compliance with court orders and ordered the PIL registry to re-notify the case on December 23. The gun licence scam was first uncovered in 2017 by the Rajasthan Anti‑Terror Squad and Madhya Pradesh Police during investigations into criminal networks, revealing licences issued to non‑residents on forged documents or false claims of army association.