SRINAGAR: Jammu & Kashmir high court has set aside the dismissal of a J&K Bank executive sacked without an inquiry into an alleged #TortureKashmir hashtag campaign on social media, ruling that a financial institution’s managing director “cannot be trusted with the drastic power to dismiss an employee without investigation”.“The President and governor are high constitutional functionaries and, therefore, they can dispense with the services of an employee without holding an inquiry in appropriate cases. But the same level of trust cannot be reposed in an officer of the level of managing director and CEO of a bank,” the single-judge bench of Justice Sanjay Dhar said in its verdict last Saturday.The petitioner, Saadut Hussain Pampori, joined J&K Bank as a computer engineer in June 1995 and rose to deputy general manager by 2022, serving as an officer on special duty to the chief minister from 2016 to 2018 under the BJP-PDP govt led by Mehbooba Mufti.The bank’s then MD suspended him on April 15, 2024, pending investigation into misconduct before ordering his dismissal on July 15 that year under Clause 12.29 of the officers’ service manual.The dismissal followed a report by DGP (CID) based on “credible sources, as also from discreet enquiries”. The report accused Pampori of spreading misinformation about alleged state-backed atrocities on Kashmiris.
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The court held that information gathered from sources or through discreet enquiries by DGP does not qualify as an “investigation” under Clause 12.29, since the process involves no collection of evidence or recording of witness statements.Justice Dhar drew a line between Clause 12.29 and Article 311(2)(c), under which govt may terminate an employee without the normal procedure if satisfied that retention is prejudicial to state security.J&K administration has dismissed nearly 100 govt employees under that provision.Clause 12.29, the court said, lays down specific preconditions, including an investigation by a state, Union territory or central agency, before an employee can be sacked.Quashing the order against Pampori as “not sustainable in law”, the court restored him to the post he held before his dismissal, albeit allowing the bank to proceed against him afresh.
