The army on Thursday challenged the filing of chargesheet against five of its personnel in the killing of a cleric Shoukat Ahmad Kataria allegedly in a fake encounter on the grounds that the prosecution has not sought prior sanction from the Centre.

The application came up for hearing before the officiating Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar Mohammad Yousuf Wani who fixed the next hearing for May 18.

The army has challenged the chargesheet filed by the special investigation team of Jammu and Kashmir police, which is probing the killing of five civilians allegedly in fake encounters, saying that there was no prior sanction from the Centre for prosecution of its personnel, which was required under Section Seven of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

On April 12, SIT filed the chargesheet against 11 people, including five army men and as many police personnel, in connection with killing of Kataria.

Kataria, a Muslim cleric, was allegedly picked up from Zadibal area of the city and shot dead in a fake encounter at Bazipora-Ajas in Bandipora district on October 5, 2006.

While the policemen, including Senior Superintendent of Police H R Parihar and his deputy Bahadur Ram, and a cleric Mohammad Ashraf Khan were charged with murder of Kataria, the army personnel -- Col Vikram Singh, V K Sharma, Major Rishi, Puran Singh and Satpal Singh -- were charged with hatching criminal conspiracy.

Meanwhile, the judge also directed the central jail authorities to ensure that Parihar is allowed to meet his family.