In a stinging rebuke to bureaucratic opacity, the Delhi High Court has slapped a ₹20,000 fine on the Central government for suppressing key facts in a review plea against former NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede’s long-delayed promotion.
Justice Chawla’s court dismissed the Centre’s bid outright, lambasting it for undermining judicial trust and underscoring that “truth must prevail, or consequences follow.”
The story goes back to December 2024, when the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) ordered that Wankhede’s promotion file – which had been kept closed by a departmental panel because of ongoing CBI and ED investigations into the 2021 Cordelia cruise drugs case and possible issues with his caste certificate – be opened.
CAT mandated his elevation to Joint Commissioner (Additional Commissioner) from January 1, 2021, if UPSC recommended it. The High Court upheld this in August 2025, but the government sought a review, claiming fresh departmental proceedings justified a rethink.
Wankhede’s counsel, Jatin Zafar Parashar, exposed the ploy: No chargesheet exists, he’s unsuspended, and CAT had already stayed those proceedings in August – a fact the Centre conveniently buried. “Repeated false pretexts to stall promotion,” Parashar argued, highlighting the officer’s unblemished record amid political crossfire from the Aryan Khan case.
The bench, comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain, decried the lapse as “grave misconduct”, expecting “utmost candour” from the state. The fine heads to the Delhi High Court Advocates’ Welfare Fund, with orders to execute CAT’s directive within four weeks. This verdict not only clears Wankhede’s path but signals zero tolerance for courtroom chicanery, as the IRS officer eyes a career revival.