SUNIL KUMAR P ARACKAL PARAMBIL, EDAVETTY PO, THODUPUZHA, IDUKKI DISTRICT Vs. COCHIN DEVASWOM BOARD THRISSUR, REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY, PIN 688 001

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The facts and sequence of events in these writ petitions bring to the fore the travails of an exasperated litigant who applied for the post of Assistant Professor in Zoology in the Kerala Varma College, Thrissur. The College falls under the management of the Cochin Devaswom Board whose conduct during the course of this litigation has been deplorable, to say the least. Despite an interim order passed by this Court on 27.5.2015, to provisionally appoint the petitioner in W.P.(C).No. 15588/2015 as Assistant Professor in Zoology with effect from 1.6.2015, the Board persisted with its adamant attitude and ensured that the petitioner did not enjoy the fruits of the interim order passed by this Court. While this Court is not against, a litigant challenging the legality of orders passed by it before an appellate forum, it would certainly frown upon those who resort to dilatory tactics to avoid compliance with orders that have attained finality. Such has been the conduct of the Board, despite the indulgence and patience shown to it by this Court while entertaining petitions filed by it seeking modification of earlier orders passed against it. It is not that this Court is unaware of the discretion it has to refuse to hear, on merits, the case of a party violating orders passed by the court but it was felt, and on hindsight naively, that the respondent Board would rise to the levels of magnanimity and dignity expected of a statutory authority.

(2.) The brief facts necessary for a disposal of these writ petitions may now be noticed ;

(3.) Thereafter, when the respondent Board moved an application for modification of the interim order before this court, based on the right reserved to it by the Division Bench of this court, after taking note of the additional contention with regard to expiry of the rank list that was prepared, this court found as follows in its interim order dated 25.02.2016 in I.A.No. 16483/2015.