The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Central Government to find out the recommendation of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) related to the promotion of Sameer Wankhede, the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and former zonal director of the Bureau of Control Bureau (NCB) and should be promoted if such a recommendation has been made.
A bench of Justice Naveen Chawla and Justice Madhu Jain said that no defect has been accepted by Wankhede, while the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation is still pending against them.
The bench passed this order, retaining the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT )’s December 2024 order, in which the government was instructed to open a sealed envelope related to Wankhede’s promotion and if the UPSC recommended his name, he was instructed to promote the post of Additional Commissioner from January 1, 2021.
The government had moved the High Court, saying that the Wankhede case has been kept in a sealed envelope due to the cases registered against him. However, the bench said, no departmental case is pending against the defendant (Wankhede) in which any chargesheet has been issued against them.
The bench also said that Wankhede has neither been suspended nor a charge sheet has been filed against him in any criminal case. The government had challenged CAT’s order on the basis that there were serious allegations against Wankhede, on the basis of which an FIR was lodged and on one occasion, the CVC also advised to initiate disciplinary action against him.
Wankhede is an officer of the 2008 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS). In the year 2021, NCB came into the discussion due to allegations of allegations of alleged from his family by threatening to implicate Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan in the Cruz Drugs case during Mumbai’s deployment.