The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to set aside the Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT) order staying the departmental enquiry against Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede arising from allegations against him in connection with the 2021 Aryan Khan drug case.
The action against Wankhede arose from a charge memorandum issued on August 18, 2025, alleging that he sought sensitive and confidential information from the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) departmental legal advisor in June 2022 in relation to the probe into the 2021 case, despite having been formally relieved from the NCB in January 2022.
A second charge alleged that Wankhede had obtained an assurance from the legal advisor to steer the Aryan Khan drug case investigation. While hearing Wankhede’s plea challenging the charge, the CAT on August 27 restrained the Centre from taking further action against him.
The order was passed by a bench of justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan while dealing with the Centre’s petition against the CAT’s August 27 order.
The court noted that the Centre had filed the petition nearly five months after the CAT issued the direction. Still, it directed the tribunal to dispose of Wankhede’s petition on January 14 or within ten days thereafter.
“The inquiry was stayed on 27th. For the last five months, you didn’t take any steps, and today, when the matter is listed for final argument, you have come. Tell us what has caused the prejudice?” the court said to Centre’s lawyer Ravi Prakash and Astu Khandelwal.
It added, “Keeping in view the aforesaid, the writ is disposed of with the following directions, the tribunal will take sincere efforts for disposal of the petition on 14/1 or within next ten days from 14/1.”
This was after Centre’s lawyer Ravi Prakash urged the court to set aside the order, saying that the tribunal had erred in staying the proceedings based on the interim stay granted by the Bombay High Court’s June 2023 order.
To be sure, the Bombay High Court in June 2023 had passed an order restraining the CBI from taking coercive action against Wankhede in a corruption and extortion case.
Prakash further said that the relief was granted based on a totally unconnected case, and the CAT’s order was deterring it from conducting its further inquiry.
However, Wankhede’s lawyer, Nidhesh Gupta, opposed the petition, saying that his client’s petition against the charge was listed before the tribunal for final hearing on January 14.
Wankhede, while serving as the zonal director of the Mumbai NCB, had arrested Aryan in 2021. However, later, he came under scrutiny of multiple agencies, including the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2023, for allegedly demanding a ₹25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not implicating son Aryan in the case.