Bombay HC grants relief to Sameer Wankhede in one petition, refuses to hear other
India Today
The Bombay High Court granted relief to former NCB Zonal director Sameer Wankhede in a criminal case, while another plea in a civil case was rejected.
While one bench of the Bombay High Court granted relief to former Narcotic Control Bureau Zonal director Sameer Wankhede, another bench of the High Court refused to hear his plea.
Wankhede is currently posted with the central agency, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
The former NCB chief had filed two separate petitions recently before the High Court seeking two different reliefs. One is a civil petition filed by Advocate Vishal and Veena Thadani challenging the order of the District Collector revoking his bar license. The other is a criminal petition filed by Rizwan Merchant and Associates to quash the FIR registered by the Thane Police.
Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to urgently hear a plea filed by Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede challenging the revocation of his bar and restaurant licence. When the matter was mentioned before Justice Gautam Patel, he said, "This matter was not mentioned before us. Nobody mentioned it yesterday. We cannot put it in without it being mentioned. Is it only for few people that this system works."
The judge went on to clarify that just because a matter has received wide coverage in the press or that the person involved is influential, the Court is not obligated to hear the case urgently. "If an influential person is there, then it gets listed the next day it is filed? We are not going to hear this...What is the great tearing urgency? What heavens are going to fall? Just because these two gentlemen have a war going on in the press does not mean we hear it," he said.
The court said that it would list the matter after following procedure. The issue of cancellation of the licence of the establishment owned by Wankhede is connected with his ongoing feud with Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik. Based on Malik's letter, the local excise department in Thane had initiated an investigation against Wankhede's bar located in the Mumbai suburbs.
READ | Mumbai drugs bust case: Former NCB zonal chief Sameer Wankhede called again for questioning
