Jammu, Aug. 9 -- A division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh high court comprising chief justice Arun Palli and justice Rajnesh Oswal on Friday directed the ministry of home affairs to file an updated affidavit on the status of prosecution sanction of eight IAS officers, allegedly involved in the infamous arms licence scam. The DB directed deputy solicitor general of India Vishal Sharma, who appeared for the ministry of home affairs to file a specific affidavit/status report with regard to the final/formal decision for granting prosecution sanction with regard to eight IAS officers within a period of six weeks. These directions were passed by the DB in the much publicised public interest litigation (PIL No.09/2012) titled Sheikh Mohd Shafi and Anr Versus Union of India and others in the scam. It may be stated here that on April 24, the DB had issued detailed directions to J&K General Administration Department (GAD) to apprise the court of further progress in the context of sending prosecution proposals of IAS officers to home ministry. Deputy solicitor general of India Vishal Sharma submitted that he has filed a latest status report on behalf of the home ministry. He mentioned that three separate communications dated May 27, 2025, July 4, 2025, and July 25, 2025, regarding proposals for grant of prosecution sanction against the eight IAS officers have since been received from J&K government and in the status report, the names of the eight IAS officers are Pandurang Kondbarao Pole (AGMUT: 2004), M Raju (AGMUT:2005), Yasha Mudgal (AGMUT: 2007), Jatinder Kumar Singh (JH: 2008), Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary (AGMUT: 2009), Niraj Kumar (AGMUT: 2010), Prasanna Ramaswamy (AGMUT: 2010) and Ramesh Kumar (AGMUT: 2011). Vishal Sharma further submitted that after the receipt of the proposals for grant of prosecution sanction, the matter is being examined by the home ministry and the action as per the existing rules upon due consideration of the documents/comments received from CBI and J&K administration shall be taken. At this stage, the DB put up a specific query to the DSGI Vishal Sharma with regard to the precise time the authorities would require to reach a final/formal decision for granting sanctions. The DSGI submitted that in every likelihood, the said process should not take more than six weeks. The Division Bench, upon this observed, "Be that as it may, he submits that he would furnish a specific affidavit/status report in this regard." However, senior additional advocate general Mohsin Qadri, who appeared for the government of J&K, submitted that since the government of J&K has complied with the directions of the Division Bench dated April 24, 2025, by forwarding the proposals of eight IAS officers for grant of prosecution sanction to the home ministry as such, the instant PIL be closed as it has served its purpose. On the other hand, Advocate SS Ahmed appearing for the petitioners submitted that the instant PIL involves the issue of national security and that the arms licences were allegedly issued by the delinquent IAS officers on monetary considerations in connivance with gun dealers. He also submitted that the scam was substantiated from the status report of the CBI where it was categorically observed that from 2012 to 2016, around 2.67 lakh arms licences were issued on extraneous considerations to non-deserving people. In March 2021, the J&K Government granted prosecution sanction against KAS officers allegedly involved in the scam and since then the CBI is repeatedly requesting the J&K government to forward the prosecution proposals of the IAS officers. "But on one pretext or the other, the prosecution proposals were delayed intentionally and deliberately to shield the high profile IAS officers allegedly involved in the scam primarily for the reason that they have been enjoying prime positions in the J&K bureaucracy", submitted advocate Ahmed. He argued that the eight IAS officers named above are still occupying prime positions and wield a lot of influence in the corridors of power. "It is only because of the continuous monitoring by this court that finally in August this year, the proposals have finally reached home ministry for a final decision," he said Advocate Ahmed further submitted that for upholding rule of law and till the final decision was taken by home ministry, the monitoring by this constitutional court must go on so that this court gets to know about the final outcome of the decision taken by the Government of India. After considering the submissions of both the sides, the DB allowed six weeks time to DSGI Vishal Sharma to come up with a specific affidavit/status report indicating the final/formal decision on prosecution sanction of eight IAS officers. The DB directed the registry to re-notify the instant PIL on October 9. The CBI had revealed that during the period between 2012 to 2016, approximately 1.53 lakh arms licenses were issued in 10 districts of Jammu division and approximately 1.21 lakh in 12 districts of the then Kashmir division, allegedly for monetary gains by the then district magistrates on forged documents. Accordingly, the CBI had sought prosecution sanction against nine IAS officers. A huge arms licence scam allegedly involving deputy magistrates was unearthed by ATS Rajasthan in 2017. It was being probed by the J&K Police before the CBI was handed over the case by the then governor, NN Vohra....