Allahabad HC Orders Probe Into Arbitrary Listing Of NIC Cases

Prayagraj, Oct 7 (TNA) The Allahabad High Court has ordered a probe into the arbitrariness in listing of cases of National Informatics Center (NIC). The court has ordered the Director General to conduct an investigation within four weeks and submit an action report against the guilty employee. The court has given this order in view of the revelations made in the sealed report of the Joint Registrar Listing.

The court expressed surprise that once the case was fed on the computer, how was it changed without any court or any administrative order. How was the case listed in another court instead of where it should have been listed. The court has also directed to remove such employee from the responsibility of computer feeding and has sought a report from the Director General on 7th November.

Justice Samit Gopal has given this order while hearing the second bail application of Sajjan Kumar. The matter came to the notice of the court when the matter was again presented before it through an additional list. No lawyer was present in the court during the hearing. Upon review, the court found that the same bench had already rejected the bail plea of the petitioner.

This case has been listed before the same bench for the second time. The court directed the Joint Registrar Listing to investigate and submit a report. The investigation report was submitted in a sealed envelope. It was discovered that it had been relisted with a specific ID without court permission. When the court asked for the report, the employee with the special ID made changes in it.

Expressing surprise, the court said that the report shows that a special ID has been used for feeding into the computer. Which is not based on any judicial or administrative order. The court said that it appears that the feeding by the user of the particular ID was changed after the previous order. The report further said that four other cases from the special ID were also delisted before other benches, which happened without any order.

On this, the court has directed the Director General to conduct a detailed investigation as per the rules in the matter and take appropriate action against the guilty persons and has considered the working system of NIC as suspicious.