Govt officers not complying with court orders: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has expressed concern that officers of the state are not complying with its orders at the first instance, forcing people to file contempt petitions.

Coming down heavily on the officers of the state for willful disobedience of court's order, the HC observed, "Apparently the officers are becoming habitual and not complying with the orders of this court at the first instance. This is a sorry state of affairs."

Hearing a contempt petition filed by Usha Singh, Justice Vivek Kumar Birla in his order passed on last Thursday had observed, "This court is noticing everyday that apparently the officers concerned, who were directed to act as per the order of the court, are not complying with the orders at the first instance and the aggrieved party is forced to file contempt application and even after granting further time to comply with the order of the writ court passed in contempt application, the orders not being complied with."

The contempt application was filed for punishing -- Satrughan Singh, director, Bal Vikas Sewa and another person -- for willful disobedience of the judgment and order dated November 1, 2019 and the order dated March 2, 2020 passed in contempt application.

According to the counsel for the applicant, a copy of the court order dated November 1, 2019 was served on them. When nothing was done, the applicant filed the contempt application.

The contempt court vide order dated March 2, 2020 had granted time for compliance of the order of this court.

It was alleged that even after the service of the order of contempt court and after expiry of time, no decision has yet been taken by them.

Taking a serious note of it, the court observed, "Prima facie, a case for punishing the opposite party for willful disobedience of the orders as noted above is made out. It is expected that the opposite parties shall make every effort to comply with the order at first instance and shall also issue necessary orders in this regard to the subordinate authorities to strictly comply with the orders at the first instance itself, otherwise the court will take serious view of the matter."