Judgment :

Sanjeev Kumar, J.

1. This is a quashment petition by the petitioners directed against FIR No. 16/2018, registered by Anti Corruption Bureau, Srinagar (for short the ACB hereafter). The petitioners also pray for a mandamus to the respondents not to treat the registration of FIR against them as an impediment in the future promotions of the petitioners. The quashment of the FIR is sought in the context of factual narration given by the petitioners in the petition, which goes as under:-

2. In Sopore Municipality, eight (8) consolidated wagers, working as sweepers, drivers etc. since 2000 had been pressing for their regularization on the ground that they had completed more than ten years of service and were thus entitled to regularization of their services. The then Executive Officer, Mr. Latief Ahmed Mir conceded to their request and passed an order of regularization in their favour on 08.07.2013 and all the eight persons were put in regular pay scale of Rs. 2550-3200 ( plus usual allowances) with immediate effect and the order was sent to respondent No. 4 for grant of necessary approval. The respondent No.4, it is claimed, neither cancelled the said order nor accorded any formal approval and, as a result thereof, the then Executive Officer did not give effect to the regularization of the aforementioned eight consolidated workers till he was in office. Even the Executive Officers, who later on replaced and followed in office Mr. Latief Ahmed Mir, also did not release the regular pay scale in favour of the consolidated workers. The petitioner No.1 took over as Executive Officer of Sopore Municipality in July, 2016 when petitioner No.2 was posted there as Secretary. It is stated that in July, 2016 the Valley was reeling under worst law and order problem due to Burhan Wani episode. Taking benefit of the situation, the consolidated workers exerted undue pressure on the petitioners for release of pay scale in terms of the order of their regularization passed by Mr. Latief Ahmed Mir in the year 2013. They even threatened not to perform their duties and let the heaps of garbage accumulate on the roads and streets of the City. The petitioner No.1 claims that he brought all these facts to the notice of respondent No.4 and requested him for release of pay scale in favour of the consolidated workers. Respondent No.4, as is claimed, not only orally conveyed his approval but also released funds to the tune of Rs. 2 Lacs and gave go ahead to the petitioner No.1. Petitioners claim that in these circumstances, salary of the aforesaid persons was released in the regular pay scale and their service books etc. were prepared. Neither respondent No.4 nor any other authority objected to such course of action adopted by the petitioners. It was, however, after some time the audit party raised some objections with regard to the regularization of the eight aforementioned consolidated workers on the ground that in terms of SRO 417 of 2008, the Executive Officer was not competent to issue any regularization orders and, therefore, release of salary in their favour by the petitioners was not justified.

3. The petitioner No.1 further submits that the Directorate of Local Bodies stopped the release of funds to meet the salary of these regularized eight consolidated workers with effect from January, 2017 which constrained the petitioner No.1 to withdraw the order of regularization of these consolidated workers issued by the then Executive Officer on 08.07.2013. This was done by petitioner No.1 vide his order No. MC/SPR/Estt/17/1671-72 dated 28.06.2017. It is also averred that this order of cancellation passed by petitioner No.1 was challenged by the consolidated workers in SWP No. 1719/2017 in which a Bench of this Court vide interim order dated 25.08.2017 stayed the cancellation order. Despite the order having been stayed by this Court, the salary in favour of the aforementioned persons was not released by the officers of Sopore Municipality and, accord