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Court junks SDMC engineer's plea, calls it gross abuse of law

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A plea of an SDMC staffer challenging an order directing a probe to fix responsibility of officials for not taking steps to remove an illegal construction here, has been rejected by a Delhi court which said it appears to be “gross abuse of law”.

“I do not find any illegality or infirmity in the impugned order…Rather the present revision petition filed on behalf of the petitioner appears to be a gross abuse of law and seems to have been filed with the sole intention to lower down the magnanimity of the trial court and to waste the precious time of this court by filing frivolous litigation,” Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma said.

The judge also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on SDMC Executive Engineer Dinesh Kumar Nagar, who had filed a plea against a magisterial court’s direction to SDMC Commissioner to remove alleged illegal construction near Jamia Nagar here and to Chief Vigilance Officer to ascertain reason and role of officials responsible for not taking such steps.

“Revision petition is dismissed being devoid of any merits with a cost of Rs 50,000 to be recovered from his salary by South Delhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC) Commissioner,” the sessions court said.

The court also said that it appeared that the official had “apprehended vigilance action against him and under such apprehension, had dared to challenge the order, which amounted to his own admission of guilt without even having been held guilty by a competent forum or authority.” The case pertains to an FIR registered against a man for illegally constructing a three-storey building in Jamia Nagar here in 2014.

The magisterial court, through its December last year order, had refused to take cognisance on charge sheet filed against him due to one year delay but had directed the SDMC Commissioner to fix responsibility of officials for not taking steps to remove the illegal construction.

In his plea, Nagar had contended that he had performed his statutory duties and the metropolitan magistrate was not justified in directing any vigilance enquiry against him.

The sessions court, however, said “Chief Vigilance Officer was free to conduct enquiry as per his convenience and take an independent decision either to initiate or otherwise to take any action against erring officials found guilty.” “What the magistrate had directed, was just to take steps to remove the illegal construction and to look into the reasons for its non demolition till the date of passing of impugned order and to examine the role of the officials of MCD, who were, otherwise responsible to take necessary steps for removal of such illegal construction,” it said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Source: dnaindia.com