Friday, the Delhi High Court allowed disciplinary action against Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede to continue in relation to the case of Cordelia cruise drugs that took place in 2021. The court admitted a plea, which was submitted by the Centre, overturning the previous order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which had cancelled the disciplinary measure taken against him.
An order that had been passed by the CAT on January 19, which had struck down the charge memorandum handed to Wankhede on August 18, 2025, by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs was quashed by a division bench consisting of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan. Discriminating the verdict, which was being read out, the bench said that the petition of the Centre could proceed. The copy of judgment should be detailed.
The case is based on the claims of corruption under the management of Wankhede as a zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Mumbai during the high-profile drug bust on the Cordelia cruise ship in 2021. The case had come into the national limelight when Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan son Aryan Khan was arrested in the case.
Wankhede was later accused of accepting money 25 crore into the family of Shah Rukh Khan to help Aryan Khan escape with serious charges. Wankhede has refuted all the claims of misconduct.
The Centre had claimed at the High Court that the CAT had made the mistake of venturing into an early stage of disciplinary procedures. This will put the case of the 2008-batch IRS officer departmental inquiry under the law after the ruling of the High Court.
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