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Delhi HC upholds CAT order to promote IRS officer Sameer Wankhede to joint commissioner
Wankhede had arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, while serving as the zonal director of the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2021
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has upheld the Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT’s) order directing the centre to promote Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede to the post of Joint Commissioner (JC) of customs and indirect taxes, if found eligible.
Wankhede had arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, while serving as the zonal director of the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2021. However, he later came under scrutiny from multiple agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2023, for allegedly demanding a ₹25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not implicating Aryan Khan in the case.
A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain delivered the verdict on Thursday, dealing with the Centre’s petition against CAT’s December 2024 order, which directed it to open the sealed cover pertaining to his promotion and grant it with effect from January 2021, if his name is recommended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
The proceedings before the CAT stemmed from an application filed by Wankhede after the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC), constituted to consider the cases of eligible officers for regular promotion to JC, kept Wankhede’s recommendation in a sealed cover in March of the previous year.
In its petition before the high court, the Centre’s counsel, Ashish Dixit, asserted that the CAT, while passing the order, had overlooked the fact that cases against Wankhede were still pending with the CBI and ED. He further informed the court that the Centre had referred a complaint to the CBI accusing Wankhede of using a forged caste certificate to obtain government employment and had also received another complaint in July 2023 alleging that he had attempted to access confidential information related to the pending investigation, which was also being further probed by the department.
Opposing the petition, Wankhede, represented by senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, submitted that the circumstances under which his promotion’s recommendation could be kept in a sealed cover had not been established, as there was neither a charge sheet, a pending disciplinary proceeding, nor a criminal case. He further submitted that the CBI’s case was still at the investigation stage and that the filing of a chargesheet was far away.
However, the court upheld the CAT’s order and directed compliance with the directions within a month, noting that, as of the current date, no departmental proceedings had been initiated against Wankhede, no chargesheet had been issued, he had not been suspended, and neither the CBI nor the ED had concluded their investigations or filed a chargesheet against him.
“As noted hereinabove, in the present case, there is no admission of guilt on the part of the respondent, and it is not the case of the petitioners that the investigation has been completed by the CBI or the ED, resulting in a chargesheet being filed against the respondent. As far as the Departmental Proceedings are concerned, the petitioners themselves have advised the CVC not to proceed further with the same. We find no infirmity in the impugned order passed by the learned Tribunal. The petition is, accordingly, dismissed,” the Court said.
