Srinagar, Dec 24: Pulling up J&K’s three top officers for resorting to delays to defy its orders, the Central Administrative Tribunal Srinagar has held that “contempt is between the court and the contemnor”.
A Division Bench of M S Latif, Member (J), and Prasant Kumar, Member (A), while hearing a case on release of wages earned by a man since 2007 said that “Regarding the disobedience shown by the Administrative Secretary and the Commissioner Secretary and the Transport Commissioner, we feel it proper at this point of time to defer further proceedings against them and listed a contempt plea on January 29, 2024.
DB further added that “Right to livelihood as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is a guaranteed right and same cannot be denied without any reason or based on any official delays or otherwise”.
“Official delays and absence of motivation can be no ground to subvert the orders passed by the courts as people approach the courts with the hopes being the temple of justice.”
By taking seriously over the attitude of the Transport Commissioner for defiance, the court reiterated the observations of J&K’s Chief Secretary that “it was the joint responsibility of the judiciary and the executive to mitigate the sufferings of the citizens”.
The court observed that earlier the Transport Commissioner made a statement in the open court that the case of the release of the legitimate dues to the petitioner had been forwarded to the Finance Department and the statement of the officer was taken on record.
While the bench underscored that it could not ignore the law that contempt was between the court and the contemnor, it said that the irresponsible attitude of the official and unnecessary delay in compliance of the orders passed by the court prima facie is tantamount to not only contempt of court but it also entail disciplinary proceedings as warranted under law.
While hearing court observed that Prima facie it appears that the deponent Arif Parvez Shah, Assistant Transport Commissioner, has filed a false affidavit before this court, which needs to be dealt with separately by the law.
Taking a lenient view once again, though not warranted in the facts and circumstances, as we were inclined to frame a rule but having a lenient view yet again and the statement made by RTO Kashmir, that there is a significant progress in the matter, we adjourn the matter by two weeks,” the bench said.
The court ordered that on January 29, 2024, the next date of hearing, the Transport Commissioner along with RTO Kashmir would remain present before it at 4:30 pm as it would not like the officers to utilize public time in the court.
It also directed its Registry to send a copy of the order to the Chief Secretary.
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