SC grants interim relief to Sameer Wankhede in Cordelia cruise case probe

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim relief to Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Officer Sameer Wankhede in his plea challenging disciplinary proceedings initiated against him in relation to the 2021 Cordelia cruise drug bust case.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe was hearing Wankhede’s plea challenging the recent Delhi High Court order that overturned the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order quashing all disciplinary proceedings arising out of a chargesheet issued against him in 2025.

The central Government approached the Delhi High Court to challenge the CAT order passed on January 19, quashing the ‘Charge Memorandum’ issued to Wankhede on August 18, 2025, by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).

Wankhede had filed an original application before the CAT challenging the disciplinary inquiry against him based on the CBIC chargesheet.

The chargesheet alleged that Wankhede sought confidential information from the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) legal adviser, Japan Babu, after the end of his tenure at NCB and attempted to influence the investigation’s direction to a predetermined outcome.

On February 27, the Delhi High Court set aside the CAT order.

Senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for Wankhede, argued the chargesheet was only issued against him in an attempt to deny him promotion and the entire ordeal was full of procedural irregularities.

The chargesheet was filed three years after the alleged incident and transcripts for the phone call with Babu were submitted two years later.

“It is not as if it is a clean slate where there is nothing at all. We have no hesitance in interfering when our conscience requires. It feels this is not a situation where we need to interfere and quash the entire thing,” said Justice Narasimha.

However, the bench took note of the procedural irregularities flagged by Wankhede, particularly regarding the appointment of an inquiry officer on March 7 without allowing him sufficient opportunity to reply to the chargesheet.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju argued on behalf of the State that Wankhede did not respond within the stipulated time and the appointment of the inquiry officer was in line with the High Court’s directions.

The court ordered, “The petitioner is permitted to file a reply within one week from today. Thereafter, a decision shall be taken by the respondent within one week. A decision on whether to appoint an inquiry officer shall be taken within two weeks thereafter.”

The Bench clarified that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case.

Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS officer, made headlines for allegedly demanding Rs 25 crore from Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s family by threatening to implicate his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case during his tenure as the zonal director in the NCB, Mumbai, in 2021.

After his tenure at NCB ended, he joined as an additional director, Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM), Mumbai, in January 2022.

In May 2022, after the NCB cleared Aryan Khan of all charges due to the lack of corroborative evidence, Wankhede was transferred to the Directorate General of Taxpayer Services in Chennai in a move later termed to be “arbitrary” and “biased” by the CAT in February 2025.