Nanak Chand And Others vs Kumud Singh And Another

Sandeep Sharma, J

By way of instant contempt petition filed under Rule 10/12 of the Contempt of Courts Rules read with Art. 215 of the Constitution of India, prayer has been made on behalf of the petitioners for initiation of contempt proceedings against the respondents for having willfully and intentionally disobeyed the order dated 24.9.2015 passed by erstwhile Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal in OA No. 1304 of 2015, titled as Nanak Chand and others vs. HPSEB Ltd. and another, whereby learned Tribunal below allowed the Original Application filed by the petitioners and directed the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners for conferment of work charge status on completion of ten years of service, with all consequential benefits incidental thereto. Since no action pursuant to aforesaid order came to be taken by the respondents, petitioners approached learned Tribunal below in the instant proceedings, in which notices were issued to the respondents by the Tribunal.

Perusal of the reply filed by the respondents reveals that instead of implementing the order alleged to have been violated, respondents filed CWP No. 2398 of 2016 before this Court, laying therein challenge to aforesaid order and prayed that the contempt petition may be disposed of. However, the fact remains that the said Civil Writ Petition having been filed by the respondents came to be finally decided by this Court vide judgment dated 4.9.2017, which has been placed on record by the petitioners with the rejoinder as Annexure P-1/A, perusal whereof clearly reveals that having perused the record vis-à-vis reasoning assigned by erstwhile Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal in the order alleged to have been violated, Division Bench of this Court dismissed the writ petition, as a consequence of which order passed by the Tribunal came to be upheld.

The writ petition filed by the respondents stands dismissed on 4.9.2017, but till date order alleged to have been violated has not been implemented. Though having taken note of such callous and indifferent attitude of the respondents, this Court would have issued show cause notice to the respondents that why they be not punished for having willfully and intentionally disobeyed the judgment passed by erstwhile Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, but, at this juncture, in view of the undertaking given by Mr. Tara Singh Chauhan, learned counsel for the respondents that the order in question shall be complied with within two weeks, if not already complied with, this Court refrains itself from doing so.

Consequently, in view of the undertaking given by Mr. Tara Singh Chauhan, Advocate, present proceedings are closed with a direction to the respondents to do the needful in terms of order in question, within two weeks, failing which respondents would aggravate the contempt and petitioners would be at liberty to get the present proceedings revived, so that appropriate action in accordance with law is taken against the erring officials.

In view of above, present proceedings are closed. Notices issued to the respondents are discharged.