The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: In what seems to be another attempt to tighten the noose around the media in Jammu and Kashmir, the local administration has said that it will stop advertisements to news organisations and cancel the accreditation of journalists who are involved in publishing “false complaints” against officials.
A circular (No 14-JK(GAD) of 2024) issued by J&K’s general administration department (GAD) noted that the administration will prosecute those making “false/frivolous/anonymous/ pseudonymous complaints” against local government officials under Section 182 of the Indian Penal Code (False statement on oath or affirmation to public servant or person authorised to administer an oath or affirmation).
The crime branch of the J&K Police has been tasked with prosecuting the accused involved in filing such complaints, including local government officials, according to the circular which was issued on Friday, June 20.
Under this section, if a person gives false information to a public servant which causes them to use their legal power to complain against another official, the informer can be punished with imprisonment of up to six months or fine of Rs 1,000, or both.
The GAD circular stated that the administration will conduct inquiries in cases where complaints against officials are published in the media, even though the circular remained silent about the composition of the team that will conduct such inquiries.
“If found complicit,” the circular said, the administration will take action “including reporting the matter to the Press Council of India and other measures like cancellation of accreditation and stoppage of Government advertisements.”
The circular has not gone down well with local journalists and editors in Jammu and Kashmir, who are already facing pulls and pressures to toe the administration’s line following the reading down of Article 370 in 2019 by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government.
“If I get a complaint against, say, a top government official, I will have to think twice before publishing it. Inquiries take years to complete in J&K and this circular will further choke the flow of information to the public and the media’s freedom,” said an editor in Srinagar, who didn’t want to be named.
Jammu-based transparency activist Raman Sharma also criticised the administration for “siding with corrupt and tainted officers” while “using government advertisement funding as a tool to suppress the press in Jammu and Kashmir”.
“On the grounds of alleged harassment and mental agony caused to officers by false, frivolous, anonymous, or pseudonymous complaints, the Jammu and Kashmir administration is shielding its corrupt officers and curtailing the fundamental rights of citizens and the press as guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution of India,” Sharma said.
However, the administration headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has said that the number of complaints against officials has gone up and “many a times, these complaints, after verification, have been found devoid of any merit, and disposed of accordingly.”
“In the process, however, public servants discharging their bonafide duties, have to face unwarranted harassment and mental agony, affecting their decision-making, thereby causing administrative inertia, which inter-alia adversely affects disposal of Government business and public service delivery,” the circular issued by Commissioner/Secretary of the GAD, Sanjeev Verma, noted.
The circular said that a government official shall be prosecuted under section 195(1)(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 if a false complaint is filed with the court against a superior official.
Section 195(1)(a) of CrPC states: “No Court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under sections 172 to 188 of the IPC” which deal with omissions and commissions in compliance of orders issued by legal authorities such as public officials and courts.
The circular said that departmental action will be considered as an alternative against public servants who make false complaints while “institutional support” will be extended to the officials affected by false complaints who will be assisted to approach J&K Police’s crime branch.
According to the Press Trust of India, 19 “chronic offenders”, including some former government employees, have been making “fake and frivolous complaints” to harass and blackmail employees across nine government departments and organisations. “Over the past six months, more than 7,000 complaints against officials have been verified as fake,” PTI reported.
The administration said that it will also help the officials affected by false complaints to file civil lawsuits seeking damages against the complainants. “This may include compensation for financial losses, emotional distress, or harm to reputation, with the provision for the public servant to engage a lawyer as per requirement on contingency fee arrangements, subject to available resources, for which each case shall be decided on merits,” the GAD circular noted.
The administration will also provide “assistance of Law Officers from the Department of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs for appropriate legal remedies in respect of acts done in official capacity” while formal inquiries will be set up by the “relevant registering authority, where such complaints have been filed by any such registered organizations”.
The circular stated that press releases would be issued “regarding complaints and inquiries to promote transparency, preferably on a monthly basis” to set up a “robust and effective mechanism for redressal of complaints against public servants.”