Wednesday, April 13 2005 19:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today (Apr 13, 2005) dismissed as "in fructuous" Colonel Anil Sehgal's application seeking direction to stay the promulgation of Army's General Court Martial (GCM) order sentencing him to four-year rigorous imprisonment in connection with the Tehelka expose.

A Division Bench of Justice B A Khan and Justice Anil Kumar, which had earlier posted the application for hearing today, said that the plea had become in fructuous after Government counsel Rekha Palli informed that Sehgal was already in Tihar Jail following promulgation of the GCM order on April 8.

Sehgal's counsel Major (Retd) Ramesh requested the court to take up his petition challenging the GCM proceedings but the court refused to take it up and fixed May 4 for hearing.

The court had on April 6 cleared the last hurdle in Sehgal being sent to Jail by refusing to stay the promulgation of GCM order confirmed by the army authorities on March 17.

It had made it clear that Army's action against Sehgal will be subject to the final outcome of the writ petition.

A five-member GCM, headed by Brig Kuldip Singh, had on January 11 found Colonel Sehgal of the Army's Directorate of Ordinance Services guilty of three of the four charges and sentenced him to four-year rigorous imprisonment and cashiered him from Defence services.

He was convicted of accepting illegal gratification of Rs 20,000 from a Tehelka team, which posed as arms dealers on two occasions, of accepting hospitality of liquor and call girls, which he himself admitted during the GCM proceedings, and meeting officials of arms dealers without taking prior permission of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).

The GCM was ordered in April last year in connection with the Tehelka expose.