A quarter-century after being shown the door without warning or inquiry, a former Jammu and Kashmir prison warden has finally been vindicated. The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Jammu Bench, has shredded the dismissal of Jahangir Khan, calling it a textbook case of procedural apathy and constitutional violation.
Khan’s career began in 1980. He rose to Selection Grade by 1994. But in 2000, while serving at District Jail, Kathua, a personal complaint from his wife alleging multiple marriages snowballed into a professional catastrophe. Without a formal inquiry, without a show-cause notice—without even a whisper of due process—Khan was discharged from service by the then Additional Director General of Prisons.
No departmental hearing. No defense. Just a sudden, cold termination letter.
What followed was a legal odyssey spanning 25 years. Courts nudged authorities—twice, in 2000 and 2011—to address Khan’s pending appeal. Nothing moved. Not even after an inquiry officer was appointed in 2004. Stonewalled and ignored, Khan had to climb the judicial ladder again and again. His last resort was the CAT, which took over the matter in 2021.
The tribunal’s ruling was blistering. It condemned the administration for operating with “a lackadaisical approach” and dragging the case for decades in blatant disregard of constitutional safeguards and Rule 33 of the J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956. It ruled the February 2000 discharge as “vitiated” due to non-compliance with mandatory rules and the sacred principle of audi alteram partem—let the other side be heard.
Though Khan has now reached retirement age and cannot return to work, CAT directed the government to pay him 50% of the back wages and full retirement benefits, including pension, within two months. The tribunal noted that Khan hadn’t shown proof of being unemployed after termination, hence only partial back pay was ordered.
Still, this was more than just a ruling on arrears. It was a scathing indictment of bureaucratic neglect and a reminder that silence, when stretched over decades, becomes cruelty.
For Khan, it may be too late for reinstatement. But at long last, the system that once shut him out has spoken—loud, clear, and in his favor.
