Court No. - 4
Case :- CONTEMPT APPLICATION (CIVIL) No. - 2927 of 2021 Applicant :- Rama Shankar Opposite Party :- Shri Rajesh Kumar, D.M.
Counsel for Applicant :- Hans Pratap Singh,Kusum Lata
Hon'ble Prakash Padia,J.
The applicant is before this Court for a direction to initiate contempt proceeding against the opposite party for wilful disobedience of the order dated 8.12.2020 passed in Public Interest Litigation No. 1420 of 2020 (Ramashankar Vs. State of U.P. and 6 Others), which for ready reference is quoted as under:-
"Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Standing Counsel for the State, Sri Bhupendra Kumar Tripathi, learned counsel for Gaon Sabha and perused the material available on record.
By means of this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for a direction upon the respondent-authorities to take action against the respondent no.7 for removing the encroachment made by him over the public road being Gata No.456 situated in Mauja Rasoolpur, Pargana and Tehsil Sagdi, District Azamgarh and restore the public road.
The sole grievance of the petitioner is that the petitioner alongwith other villagers has made a representation on 31.07.2020 before the respondent no.5 to evict the respondent no.7 from the land in dispute. He further submits that after lapse of more than 3 months from the date of representation filed by the petitioner, no action has been taken by the respondent-authorities and the said representation is still pending consideration. He further submits that the representation of the petitioner may be directed to decide expeditiously in accordance with law.
Learned Standing Counsel does not dispute the aforesaid contention and states that in case the said representation is still pending, the same shall be considered and disposed off in accordance with law.
Having considered the facts and circumstances of the case, but without prejudice to the merits of the case, the writ petition is finally disposed off with direction to the respondent no.2 to consider and decide the representation dated 31.7.2020 pending before it, in accordance with law within a period of two months from the date of production of copy of this order. "
Learned counsel for the applicant submits that a copy of the aforesaid order was submitted for compliance before the opposite parties but the opposite parties have wilfully not complied with the order and, thus, have committed civil contempt liable for punishment under Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
Prima facie a case of contempt has been made out. However, considering the facts and circumstances of the case, one more opportunity is afforded to the opposite parties to comply with the aforesaid order of the Court within six weeks from the date of production of a copy of this order.
With the aforesaid observations, this application is disposed of at this stage with liberty to the applicant to move a fresh application, if the order is not complied with by the opposite parties within the stipulated time as aforementioned.
The party shall file computer generated copy of such order downloaded from the official website of High Court Allahabad, self attested by the applicant along-with a self attested identity proof of the said person (preferably Aadhar Card) mentioning the mobile number to which the said Aadhar Card is linked.
The concerned Court/Authority/Official shall verify the authenticity of such computerized copy of the order from the official website of High Court Allahabad and shall make a declaration of such verification in writing.
Order Date :- 30.9.2021 Swati