In yet another twist in Mumbai’s Cordelia cruise drug seizure case involving 2008-batch IRS officer Sameer Wankhede, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to overturn the Delhi High Court’s order that permitted the Centre and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to move forward with disciplinary proceedings against Wankhede.
The IRS officer was posted as Zonal Director of the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) when the Cordelia cruise drug seizure case took place in 2021.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe allowed Wankhede to file his response within two weeks and also directed the authorities to reconsider the appointment of the inquiry officers after taking his reply into account. Wankhede had argued that the inquiry officer was appointed without giving him sufficient time to represent his case.
The justices, while refusing to interfere with the High Court’s order, noted that the appointment of the inquiry officer as well as the presenting officer on March 7, 2026, was made without giving sufficient opportunity to the petitioner to file a reply to the chargesheet. The bench permitted two weeks’ time to the petitioner to represent himself and file a reply.
It should be recalled that the Delhi High Court had overturned a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)’s order quashing disciplinary proceedings against Wankhede on February 27.
A bench of Delhi HC Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan had held that the CAT should not have interfered at the stage when only a charge memorandum had been issued.
The disciplinary action against Wankhede was initiated in the 2021 Cordelia cruise drug seizure case that had led to the arrest of noted actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan.
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