High Court rebukes executive disdain

Srinagar, Aug 06: Observing that the non-compliance of its orders had reduced the justice dispensation system in Jammu and Kashmir to a “cruel joke”, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh Tuesday warned against defiance of its orders saying “what has been happening till now with the orders of the court will no longer be tolerated.”

Dismayed over the manner in which its orders are implemented, a division bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Javed Iqbal Wani said: “This reflects a shocking scenario where the executive is ignoring the orders passed by this court consistently with utter disdain, smug that this court will take not measures imperiling their liberty for their disobedience.”

The court said that this environment had come to exist on account of the excessive latitude being shown by the court, time and again, only to maintain a harmonious relationship between the judiciary and the executive.

The bench observed that the number of contempt petitions pending before the High Court as on date was a little over 6000.

In other words, it said, there are at least six thousand litigants in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir who despite having orders in their favour are unable to savour the benefit of these orders.

In some cases, the court said, there might be more than a petitioner in a contempt petition which would raise the number of persons awaiting the benefit of the court’s orders, phenomenally above 6000.

“A few of these contempt matters are pending between 10 to 15 years and the cases pending between 1 to 5 years are the ones that run into thousands and has reduced the justice dispensation system in J&K to a cruel joke,” the High Court said.

The court noted that a contempt case should be concluded ideally in three to five hearings, in which the order is complied with, or “there is no need to comply with it as the superior court or the larger bench has stayed or set aside the principal order itself, or the contemnor is punished in accordance with law”.

It said that a tradition existed where the contemnors were given repeated adjournments, a multitude of “statement of facts” and “reports” were called for resulting in contempt petitions pending for 4 to 5 years.

“But traditions are what things were,” the court said. “If contempt cases are to linger on inordinately without compliance, the very existence of this court is meaningless.”

It said that the “couldn’t careless” attitude of the executive gives an impression that the court has to resort to firm measures to ensure that the orders passed by it and by other courts judicially inferior to the High Court, are complied with in letter and spirit and were taken more seriously than the way it had been till date.

The court held that to restore a semblance of sanity by achieving compliance of its orders, it had to take precipitate measures and not hesitate to do so.

“However, the court is recording these observations herein so that J&K and the bureaucracy is put on guard that what has been happening till now with the orders of this court should no longer be tolerated,” it said.

The court urged that once an order is passed it should be complied with in letter and spirit, stayed or set aside by a superior court or a larger bench or, the contemnor be prepared to face the consequences for contempt of court.

The court expressed its bile following the inconsistency in the statements made by Advocate General and J&K’s Law Secretary over non-appearance of Chief Secretary through video conferencing before it in a contempt plea.

Hearing a contempt plea on August 5, the court in the morning had directed the contemnors being the Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary, Secretary GAD, and Secretary PWD R&B to join the proceedings through video conferencing at 2:30 pm to obviate the inconvenience to them of personally appearing before the court to answer the charge of contempt.

While the Principal Secretary, Finance and the Secretary PWD, R&B, joined the proceedings through video conferencing, the Secretary GAD did not join as he was on leave.

Regarding the Chief Secretary, the Advocate General, as per instructions received by him, told the court that the Chief Secretary was desirous to join the proceedings and was in the process of joining the video conference in a few minutes and the delay was solely on account of connectivity issues.

However, the court observed that never happened.

It said that a short while later, Law Secretary Achal Sethi appeared through video conferencing and said that the Chief Secretary was unable to appear through video conferencing as he was busy in a meeting.

“As of now, this court is unable to ascertain as to who is lying, whether it is the person who informed the Advocate General that the Chief Secretary is keen to join the proceedings and will do so in a few moments or whether it was the Law Secretary who was instructed to state incorrectly on behalf of the Chief Secretary,” the court said. “Both these versions were starkly disparate and in gross contradiction to each other.”

It noted that from the manner in which the J&K government had conducted itself, it was clear that there was an absolute lack of sincerity of purpose on its part to comply with the order passed by the court.

“It reflects a sorry state of affairs that exists in J&K with regard to judicial proceedings and judicial orders,” the court said and ordered all the four “contemnors” to remain present in person before it on August 8.

The court said if any of these officers did not comply with the direction for personal appearance on August 8, it would resort to coercive measures to secure their presence.