In a packed courtroom at Srinagar on Thursday, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court declined to interfere with the suspension and disciplinary inquiry of BSF Assistant Commandant Akhand Prakash Shahi, who is facing criminal charges of rape on the alleged false promise of marriage. The atmosphere in Court No. ... was tense as Justice Sanjay Dhar delivered a detailed order, cutting through layers of arguments that had stretched over multiple hearings.
Read also:- Supreme Court Hears Plea on Aadhaar Misuse Allegations as Election Commission Repeats It’s Only
Background
Shahi has been entangled in legal trouble since 2022, when an FIR under Section 376 IPC was registered in Delhi based on the complaint of a woman ASI of the BSF. According to her written complaint, the officer “kept assuring her that he would marry her”, while maintaining sexual relations from December 2020 to early 2021 at hotels in Dwarka, Mahipalpur, and the Delhi Airport area.
When she allegedly discovered later that the officer was involved with another woman from Meghalaya-and subsequently engaged to someone else-the dispute escalated into both police action and departmental scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the BSF placed Shahi under suspension, reviewed it multiple times, and later initiated an inquiry under Rule 173 of the BSF Rules. Shahi went to court seeking to stop the departmental action until his criminal trial concluded, arguing that parallel proceedings would hurt his defence.
Read also:- Supreme Court Clarifies NCLAT Remarks in GLAS Trust Case, Dismisses Appeals After Brief Hearing
Court’s Observations
Justice Dhar, after recounting the factual timeline, noted that both cases-criminal and departmental-stem from the same allegations. But that alone, he said, is not enough to stop the inquiry.
The bench observed, “There is no legal bar on departmental and criminal proceedings running side by side. Only when the charges are grave and involve complicated questions of law and fact should the employer wait.”
The judge added that this case did not fall in that narrow category. The issue was straightforward: whether the woman had been misled into a relationship on a false promise of marriage.
Interestingly, the court also highlighted that Shahi had already disclosed his defence in his writ petitions, bail application and representations. “So the argument that departmental proceedings will prejudice him doesn’t hold much water,” the court remarked, almost with a hint of impatience.
On the suspension, Shahi accused the BSF of keeping him under prolonged suspension as a form of punishment. But the judge rejected that claim too. The bench observed, “It was the petitioner himself who stalled the departmental proceedings by obtaining an interim stay. He cannot now argue delay.”
Read also:- Supreme Court Rebukes Punjab Govt Over "Zero Progress" on Judicial Infrastructure, Declines to
Decision
In the end, the High Court dismissed both writ petitions, refusing to halt the inquiry or lift the suspension.
Justice Dhar concluded firmly that the BSF was within its rights to continue the disciplinary process even while the criminal trial moves forward. With that, all interim orders-particularly the stay on the inquiry-were vacated.
Case Title: Akhand Prakash Shahi v. Union of India & Anr.
Case Numbers: WP(C) No. 1876/2025; WP(C) No. 3128/2023; CCP(S) No. 32/2024
Court: High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh at Srinagar
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjay Dhar
Reserved On: 03 November 2025
Date of Judgment: 14 November 2025
