Court No. - 39
Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 181 of 2018 Appellant :- Dr. Sushil Soloman Respondent :- Rajendra Prasad Pandey And 19 Others Counsel for Appellant :- Prakash Padia Counsel for Respondent :- Bhanu Pratap Singh
Hon'ble Dilip Gupta,J. Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J.
This Special Appeal has been filed to assail the order dated 19 February 2018, passed by a learned Judge of this Court in Contempt Application (Civil) No. 6137 of 2017.
It transpires that the Contempt Application was filed for violation of interim mandamus issued by the Writ Court on 19 September 2017 in Writ-A No. 44333 of 2017 that was filed by respondent nos. 1 to 20. A mandamus was issued, in view of the interim mandamus issued in Writ-A No. 39279 of 2017 that required the University to pay dearness allowance to the petitioners within two months or show cause. The order dated 19 September 2017 directs that the same benefit of the aforesaid interim order should be given to the respondent nos. 1 to 20 also.
It is not the case of the appellant that cause was shown within two months from 19 September 2017. It also transpires that despite the undertaking given by the learned counsel for the appellant on 29 January 2018 that the requisite payment shall be paid, the undertaking was not complied with. It is for this reason that the learned Judge on 19 February 2018 directed the Vice Chancellor of the University to appear in person before the Court on 8 March 2018 and show cause why he be not punished for having committed contempt.
Learned counsel for the appellant is aggrieved by the order only to the extent that it directs the Vice Chancellor of the University to appear in person on 8 March 2018. Learned counsel has stated that the University shall make the payment to the writ- petitioners in terms of interim mandamus issued by the Writ Court on or before 5 March 2018 and in that event, the Vice Chancellor may be exempted from appearing before the learned Judge on 8 March 2018.
Sri Ashok Malviya, learned counsel appearing for the writ- petitioners, who have been arrayed as respondent nos. 1 to 20 in this Special Appeal has stated that the writ-petitioners are interested in payment of dearness allowance only.
In this view of the matter, we modify the order dated 19 February 2018 passed in Contempt Application (Civil) No.6137 of 2017 only to the extent that the Vice Chancellor of the University may not appear before the Court on 8 March 2018 provided payments due under the interim mandamus dated 19 September 2017 are made. In case the payments are not made, the order dated 19 February 2018 shall be complied with.
The Special Appeal is disposed of with the aforesaid observations.
Order Date :- 27.2.2018 sfa/ (Dilip Gupta, J) (Jayant Banerji, J)