Cordelia Cruise Drugs Case: Delhi High Court Rejects Sameer Wankhede's Contempt Plea Alleging Non-Compliance With CAT Order

The Delhi High Court has recently rejected a contempt petition moved by Sameer Wankhede alleging non-compliance of an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) last year. 

The CAT, on August 21 last year, passed the order holding that NCB DGP Gyaneshwar Singh could not have been part of the inquiry team set up to probe alleged procedural lapses by Wankhede in connection with the Cordelia cruise drugs case.

Justice Mini Pushkarna said that the petition was not maintainable but granted liberty to Wankhede to approach the CAT for redressal of his grievances.

“Further, it is clarified that this Court has not commented on the merits of the case of the petitioner or of the respondents. The rights and contentions of both the parties are left open, which shall be adjudicated by the learned CAT, without being influenced by any observation made in the present order,” the court said.

Wankhede had moved CAT challenging the report of Special Enquiry Team (SET) constituted by NCB's Competent Authority to enquire into the allegations levelled against him in the manner he conducted the raid on the cruise.

On December 20, 2022, CAT passed an ad-interim order in favour of Wankhede and ordered that before taking any action against him on the basis of the SET report, the Central Government shall grant a personal hearing to him.

However, Wankhede alleged that an FIR was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May last year overlooking the CAT's order.

On August 21 last year, the CAT had observed that Gyaneshwar Singh, being actively involved in the investigation could not have been part of the SET, and directed that an opportunity for a hearing be given to Wankhede before taking any action.

Wankhede submitted that he had filed a writ petition before a coordinate bench seeking a direction to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste (NCSC) to act on the complaint lying pending with it. The single judge disposed of the plea requesting the Commission to consider his application and dispose of the same in an expeditious manner.

It was Wankhede's case that the NCSC heard the matter and gave serious observations and recommendations against Gyaneshwar Singh. However, he claimed that he was still being victimized and being told that complaints were being given to the Enforcement Directorate to act on the basis of the CBI FIR as a Scheduled Offence.

On the other hand, the Union Government submitted that the petition was not maintainable and was a misuse of the process of law.

It was contended that CAT itself has the jurisdiction to entertain matters where contempt of its orders has been committed and thus, Wankhede must have approached the Tribunal for raising grievances.

The Union Government further said that the subject matter before the CAT was the case registered in 2021 regarding the raid conducted at the cruise but the notices issued to Wankhede last year by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and NCB did not pertain to the said case.

Perusing the said communications, the court observed that they were not issued to Wankhede but to a third party (Deputy Director General of NCB South West Region, Sanjay Kumar Singh) and they relate to investigation with respect to other cases.

“Considering the aforesaid detailed discussion, this Court is of the view that the present petition is not maintainable before this Court. However, petitioner is granted liberty to approach the learned CAT for redressal of his any grievances,” the court said.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. Ravi Sikri, Senior Advocate with Mr. Sachin Midha and Mr. Aditya Vikram Bajpai, Advocates

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Chetan Sharma, ASG with Mr. Kirtiman Singh, CGSC, Mr. Ravi Prakash, CGSC, Mr. Amit Gupta, Mr. Varun Pratap Singh, Mr. Varun Rajawat, Mr. Amit Sharma, Ms. Astu Khandelwal, Mr. Vikramaditya Singh, Ms. Astuti Khandelwal and Mr. Kirtiman Singh, Advocates for respondent/UOI; Mr. Aalok Kumar, Advocate with Mr. Abhishek Singh, for respondent no. 3

Title: SAMEER DNYANDEV WANKHEDE v. MR GYANESHWAR SINGH & ORS.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 142