Court No. - 7
Case :- CONTEMPT APPLICATION (CIVIL) No. - 2644 of 2021 Applicant :- Harish Chandra Pandey Opposite Party :- Sri Mangal Deo Singh Civil Judgeand 13 Others Counsel for Applicant :- Anup Kumar Srivastava
Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the applicants and perused the record.
By means of this contempt application filed under Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 the applicant has complained of non compliance of the order of this Court dated 28th January, 2021 passed in Matters Under Article 227 No.- 384 of 2021, whereby direction was issued to the court below to decide the application of the applicant- petitioner filed under Order 39 Rule 1 & 2 of C.P.C. filed in Original Suit No.- 352 of 2020 (Harish Chandra Pandey vs. Vijai Narain Pandey and others) It is a widely known fact that in the recent past the entire State of U.P. got badly hit by the surge of second waive of Covid-19 pandemic resulting in the suspension of public movement and lock-down adversely affecting both judicial and administrative work in the State.
In view of the above, it is quite possible that the order of this Court issued on 28th January, 2021 does not stand complied with but this does not mean that it is a deliberate and wilful attempt on the part of the Presiding Officer to delay the proceedings.
In the matters of contempt application, there is personal liability of committing disobedience to the orders of the Court. Judicial officers of the civil courts cannot be held personally liable if any proceedings are delayed because the presiding officer may be overburdened with work of varied nature and it is quite possible that proceedings get delayed and sometimes proceedings get delayed even due to the strike of lawyers.
In such above view of the matter, I do not find it a fit case to issue notice of contempt to the Presiding Officer.
However, the end of justice would be served in case if a fresh direction is issued to the court concerned to decide the aforesaid application of the applicant.
Accordingly, this contempt application is disposed of with a direction to the court concerned to decide the aforesaid application of the applicant filed under Order 39 Rule 1 & 2 of C.P.C. as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of three months from the date of production of copy of this order provided, of course, there is no third waive of Covid-19 pandemic resulting in the suspension of public movement and lock-down adversely affecting both judicial and administrative work in the State.
It is provided that a copy of the order available on the official website of the High Court will be taken to be authentic one.
Order Date :- 28.7.2021 Atmesh