Hon'ble Ravi Nath Tilhari,J.
Heard learned Standing Counsel for the petitioners and Shri Shrawan Kumar Verma for the opposite party.
Considering the trivial issue involved and the apparent error in the order of the Tribunal dated 02.02.2021, we do not propose to grant any time for filing counter affidavit as the only question involved is the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to pass such an order in a contempt proceeding and there is not much of factual dispute involved.
Prima facie in a contempt proceeding, orders such as the one, which has been passed on 02.02.2021, could not have been passed by the U.P. State Public Services Tribunal. If the judgment of the Tribunal has not been complied with, the Tribunal can proceed to punish the officers responsible in this regard for contempt of the Tribunal in terms of Section 5-A of the U.P. Public Services Tribunal Act, 1976 and the rules, if any, made in respect thereof, but, it could not have issued direction to the State Public Service Commission to ensure that sealed cover is opened within a fortnight from 02.02.2021 and that its recommendation is to be forwarded accordingly to the State Government for implementation after recording a finding that the sealed cover procedure was wrongly adopted and there was no material on the date of entitlement and as such Commission is duty bound to open the sealed cover and to submit the recommendation to the State Government.
We accordingly are of the view that the order dated 02.02.2021 cannot be sustained. However, so far as the order dated 06.01.2021 is concerned, certain queries have been made by the Tribunal from the opposite party, in so far as they may be relevant to facilitate adjudication of issues in the contempt proceeding, cannot be interfered with as we do not find any direction in the order dated 06.01.2021 on merits. Therefore, while we quash the order dated 02.02.2021, we allow the order dated 06.01.2021 to continue, subject to our observations made hereinabove.
At this stage, Shri Verma informed the Court that after passing of the order dated 02.02.2021, the Public Service Commission has considered the case of the opposite party and sent its recommendation to the State Government. The State Government shall take a decision in the light of the original judgment of the Tribunal in the claim petition, uneffected by the order dated 02.02.2021 passed by it in contempt proceedings. We made it clear that our order does not absolve the petitioners herein from complying the judgment of the Tribunal passed in the claim petition in letter and spirit as we have only delved into validity of the order passed by the Tribunal in the contempt proceedings.
It is open for the Tribunal to proceed with the contempt proceedings as per law for non compliance of the judgment passed in the claim petition, subject however, to the observations made hereinabove.
The petition is allowed in part.
Order Date :- 16.8.2021 Mustaqeem