Court No. - 7
Case :- CONTEMPT APPLICATION (CIVIL) No. - 1455 of 2021 Applicant :- Shiv Prasad Opposite Party :- Anil Kumar Vishen Consolidation Officer And Another Counsel for Applicant :- Hanuman Deen Verma
Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the applicant.
It is pleaded that this is the second contempt application as the Director initially issued to the Consolidation Officer, Sonpur, District Basti ash not been complied with as he was to decide the objection.
After the order was passed in Writ B No.222 of 2020 yet another contempt application has come to be filed bearing no.3686 of 2020 taking a plea that the order has not been complied with and the said contempt application was disposed of on 5.10.2020 providing further time to comply with the order. Now, it is stated that the objection has not yet been disposed of.
It is widely known fact that the entire State of Uttar Pradesh has been hit by the surge of second wave of pandemic Covid-19 and there was a complete lockdown in the entire State and the judicial as well as administrative authorities were also directed to suspend their work.
In such circumstances, therefore, if the objection has remained pending before the Consolidation Officer, in the strict sense of words and expression 'contempt' within the meaning of Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, the Consolidation Officer cannot be fastened with the personal liability for alleged flouting of the order of this Court. Nothing has been demonstrated that there was any deliberate attempt on the part of the Consolidation Officer to delay the proceedings.
In view of the above, the present contempt application is disposed of with direction to the applicant to move an application for early disposal of objection pending before the Consolidation Officer under remand within a period of two months from today.
The Consolidation Officer shall deal with the objections under remand as per prescribed procedure under the chakbandi rules and manual and thereafter proceed to decide the objection in accordance with law giving full opportunity of hearing to the concerned parties.
This is the third time that the direction is issued, it is expected that the Consolidation Officer shall honour the order of this Court and dispose of the objection within a period of two months from the date of production of this order.
Order Date :- 27.7.2021 Deepika