Not finding “any favour” in their apprehension that there won’t be “a proper application of mind” by authorities unless directed by court, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court recently rejected a plea by two senior IAS officers in connection with the gun licence scam.The HC dismissed the application of the two bureaucrats to implead themselves as a party in a PIL, which had questioned the delay in grant of prosecution sanction by the government against eight IAS officers who, according to the CBI, had allegedly issued thousands of gun licences to people in violation of the prescribed rules.The application had also sought issuance of appropriate directions to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, to consider the representations submitted by both the officers and “apply its independent mind” before taking any decision on the proposal for grant of prosecution sanction against them.The applicants — Panduran Kondbaroa Pole and Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, both AGMUT cadre officers of 2004 and 2009 batch, respectively – are among nine IAS officers against whom CBI had sought prosecution sanction in the alleged multi-crore gun licences scam involving various district magistrates, their staff and gun dealers in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state.Of them, the Centre has so far granted prosecution sanction against just one officer – Kumar Rajeev Ranjan. The 2010-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, presently posted as Administrative Secretary for the Department of Labour and Employment in J&K, is currently facing inquiry for allegedly abusing a woman officer during a review meeting – a video of which went viral last month.The other officers awaiting prosecution sanction, apart from Pole and Choudhary, are M Raju, Yasha Mudgal, Jitendra Kumar Singh, Niraj Kumar, Prasanna Ramaswamy and Ramesh Kumar.The Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe covers 2.74 – 2.78 lakh arms licences issued by these officers during their tenure as DMs across the erstwhile state. The licences were issued between 2012 and 2016, allegedly in collusion with middlemen and gun dealers.Story continues below this adDuring the hearing, senior counsel Sakal Bhushan, appearing for the applicants, tried to impress upon the court that the “doctrine of deemed sanction cannot be applied, rather a case-by-case assessment is required to be made by the Authorities and the Court’’. He said he was seeking minimal relief of his representation to be considered by the competent authority.The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Dr Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Rajnesh Oswal, observed that “this court deems the issuance of such a direction to the respondent authorities unwarranted when alternatively, Mr Bhushan submitted that he may be permitted to withdraw the application and pursue his representation before the DoPT.”The bench said, “Merely the gist of the submission made by learned Senior counsel was that unless the court directs, there will not be proper application of mind by the respondents, which does not seem to find any favour of the Court.”The application “cannot be entertained”, the bench observed, adding that it is “dismissed as withdrawn’’.Story continues below this adMeanwhile, Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, advocate appearing for the petitioners filing the PIL, drew the court’s attention towards an updated status report filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs saying that after detailed examination of the matter and consultation with the investigating agency and the J&K government, it has forwarded its considered opinion to the DoPT for taking a final decision in accordance with the prescribed procedure.After considering the submissions, the division bench directed Vishal Sharma, the Deputy Solicitor General of India (DSGI), to submit a comprehensive report regarding the compliance of orders passed from time to time by the court. The Bench also directed the registry to re-notify the PIL on December 23.In August last year, the court had granted six weeks’ time to the Centre to file a “specific affidavit/status report’’ with regard to its decision for granting sanction to prosecute eight IAS officers for alleged irregularities into the issuance of arms licences.The direction had come when DSGI Sharma, following a pointed query about the precise time required by authorities to reach a final/formal decision for granting sanctions, had submitted that “in every likelihood, the said process should not take more than six weeks’’.Story continues below this adThe scam was first detected in 2017 by the Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and the Madhya Pradesh Police when they, during investigation into the criminal networks in their respective states, found that thousands of arms licences were issued to non-residents of J&K on the basis of forged documents or false claims of association with army personnel.