Srinagar: Facing legal trouble for criminal contempt of court, a 2018 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer posted in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, August 12, apologised for his behaviour before a bench of the Jammu and Kashmir high court.The high court, however, sought more demonstration of remorse by the IAS officer, Shyambir Singh, who is posted as deputy commissioner in Ganderbal district, by asking him to voluntarily approach the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Ganderbal.“If you are sincere, go to the CJM Ganderbal and tender your apology there. Your apology may be considered then,” a high court bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Sanjeev Kumar observed, while adjourning the case to Wednesday, August 14.The bench, however, didn’t pass any order for the DC to appear before the CJM but insisted that he does so voluntarily.Singh, who is the son-in-law of former Union minister and senior BJP leader Prahlad Singh Patel, had “illegally” initiated proceedings to demarcate the land of Fayaz Ahmad Qureshi, a judge who had ordered his salary to be stopped due to alleged non-compliance with a court order issued nearly 18 months ago.Singh had reportedly ordered the constitution of a committee headed by assistant commissioner revenue (Ganderbal), M Altaf Bhat, a Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officer, which was tasked to demarcate the land owned by the judge Qureshi.Last month, the judge had initiated suo moto contempt proceedings against the DC and issued a notice to him before referring the matter to the high court. On August 1, the court observed that it had given “sufficient opportunities” to Singh to respond to the notice who “neither bothered to appear before the court nor he has furnished his reply”.“Accordingly, this court deems it appropriate to proceed in accordance with The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 r/w rules framed by Hon’ble High Court of J&K for regulating the procedure of contempt of itself and of the subordinate courts dated 23rd October 2023,” the court ruled, adding that it was referring the matter to the high court for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Singh.The court had also recommended that the chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir take administrative action under the Government Conduct Rules, 1971, against the DC, describing him as a “constant potential threat” to the judiciary.The high court bench said on Monday that the judiciary doesn’t interfere in the working of the executive, “We (courts) never tell you how to do your work. How can you do this? There are higher courts. If you think some order is wrong, you could have approached the high court.”While appearing personally before the bench following the court’s direction, Singh, a 2018 IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh, said that his intention was not to disrespect the court. “It was because of unforeseen circumstances. I would never dream of disrespecting the court. I apologise,” Singh said, according to a report in a local news agency.The Wire was among the first news outlets to report about the contempt proceedings against the IAS officer which came at a time when tensions between the local administration, which is run directly by the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government, and the judiciary, are running high over the former’s reluctance to implement the latter’s orders.Earlier this month, the high court observed that a “sorry state of affairs” prevailed in Jammu and Kashmir as the administration acted “consistently with utter contempt” for the judiciary and the judicial system had become a “cruel joke”.The court’s comments come after two senior administration officials gave two contradictory answers to justify the absence of the chief secretary (CS) from the proceedings. While J&K’s advocate general D.C. Raina blamed it on “connectivity issues”, law secretary Achal Sethi, who appeared through video conferencing, told the court that the CS was “busy in a meeting”.