S R NELIVIGI Vs. ADVOCATE GENERAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is before this Court under Articles 226 & 227 of the Constitution of India, praying for quashing the order dated 19-12-2005 at Annexure-B, on the file of respondent No. I/advocate General, and direct the respondent No. 1 to grant consent to institute criminal contempt of Court proceedings against the respondent Nos. 2 and 3.

(2.) THE brief facts of the case leading to the filing of the Writ Petition may be stated as under :

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner submits that in W. P. No. 405/2006, the present petitioner has challenged the order dated 19-12-2005 made by the Advocate General refusing to give the consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings under Section 15 (l) (b) of the Contempt of Courts Act (in short 'the Act') against one Ashok c Neeralagi and N. M. Kulkarni, but the same was disposed of on 20-2-2006 relying on the ruling of the Apex Court reported in AIR 1981 SC 723 (S. K. Sarkar, Member, Board of Revenue, U. P. , Lucknow v. Vinay Chandra Misra) holding that it is open for the complainant to lodge a complaint to initiate criminal contempt directly in the High Court. Learned single Judge of this Court has observed the question as to whether the consent of the Advocate General is required or not, would be considered in the present Writ Petition. It is further contended that the averments made in the written statement filed by respondent No. 2 through respondent No. 3 are amounting to criminal contempt. But the Advocate General, State of Karnataka, erred in rejecting the application dated 8-12-2005 seeking his consent for instituting the proceedings for the contempt of Court.