SRINAGAR, MAY 12: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Monday adjourned the Srinagar sex abuse case following the death of a painter inside the High Court premises who fell from third floor and later died on the way to hospital. The case has been now listed for hearing on May 26.

A full Bench of Justices Nissar Ahmad Kakroo, Virander Singh and J P Singh heard the case. Advocate Zaffer Ahmed Shah, pleading the case on behalf of the High Court Bar Association which had filed the PIL after the sex abuse scandal was unearthed in 2006, challenged the formulation of a full bench for hearing the case. He stressed the need for discussing and resolving the difference between the two judges of the Division Bench, who had given split judgment in October last year. Shah also pleaded that there is no need for arguing the case afresh.

The chief justice of the J-K High Court had constituted the full bench after Justice Bashir Ahmad Kirmani and Justice Imtiyaz Hussain delivered a conflicting judgments in the case on October 18, 2007.

The double bench of the High Court, at that time, had not only reprimanded the CBI for being lax in its investigations, but also revealed the names of a Cabinet minister, two legislators, top bureaucrats, senior police officers and prominent businessmen against whom evidence was available but no cognizance was taken.

Additional Advocate General Altaf Nayak, while arguing the case on Monday, pleaded before the full bench that the court should only discuss such points where there is disagreement between the two judges.

The hearing of the case started in Srinagar after a Congress parliamentarian from Jammu, Madan Lal Sharma, alleged that a former Minister, Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed, and assembly Speaker Tara Chand were involved in the scandal, but were let off after the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.