Officers Becoming Habitual And Not Complying With The Court's Orders At The First Instance; A Sorry State of Affairs: Allahabad HC [Read Order]

The Bench of Justice Vivek Kumar Birla further observed that due to this approach of the officers, the aggrieved party is forced to file contempt application and even after granting further time to comply with the order of the writ Court passed in contempt application, the orders are not being complied with.

The matter before the Court

Notably, a contempt application was filed for punishing the opposite party for willful disobedience of the judgment and order dated 1.11.2019 passed by the Court in Writ Petition No. 15554 of 2019 and the order dated 2.3.2020 passed in Contempt Application (Civil) No. 1442 of 2020.

It was stated by the Counsel for the applicant that a copy of the order of Writ Court dated 1.11.2019 was served to the opposite party. When nothing was done, the applicant filed the present contempt application.

The Contempt Court vide order dated 2.3.2020 granted time for compliance of the order of the High Court.

It was stated that even after the service of the order of contempt court and after expiry of time, no decision was taken by the opposite parties.

Court's Order and Observations

The Court was of the view that prima facie, a case for punishing the opposite party for willful disobedience of the orders as noted above was made out.

The Court issued notice to the opposite party no. 2 only to show cause by appearing in person before the Court as to why charge be not framed for punishing him under Section 12 of Contempt of Courts Act for willful disobedience of the orders as noted above.

The Court also opined,

"This Court is noticing every day that apparently the officers concerned, who were directed to act as per the order of the Court, are not complying with the orders at the first instance and the aggrieved party is forced to file contempt application and even after granting further time to comply with the order of the writ Court passed in contempt application, the orders not being complied with. Apparently the Officers are becoming habitual and not complying with the orders of this Court at the first instance." (emphasis supplied)

The Court further remarked,

"This is a sorry state of affairs and it is expected that the opposite party shall make every effort to comply with the order at first instance and shall also issue necessary orders in this regard to the subordinate authorities to strictly comply with the orders at the first instance itself, otherwise the Court will take serious view of the matter." (emphasis supplied)