CHHATERPAL SINGH Vs. DIVISIONAL FOREST OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present contempt petition has been filed on the ground that the order passed by this Court on 16th July, 1990, in writ petition No. 12057 of 1990 had not been complied with by the opposite parties. According to the case of the petitioner he was appointed as Assistant Clerk in the Social Forestry Department, Fatehpur, on 1 -1 -1988 on Rs. 20/ - per day. He worked continuously but on 6th April, 1990, O.P. No. 1 did not permit him to enter the office for performance of his duty. Thereafter the petitioner filed writ petition No. 12057 of 1990 in this Court on 4 -5 -1990 in which the following interim order was passed on 16th July, 1990;

(2.) NOTICE of the contempt petition was issued to the opposite parties on 14th February, 1991, and both Shri Ajay Sahgal, Divisional Forest Officer, O.P. No. 1, and Shri S.P. Srivastava, Forest Range Officer, O.P. No. 2, have filed counter -affidavits.

(3.) SHRI S.P. Srivastava, Forest Range Officer, Amauli Range, O.P. No. 2, has also filed a detailed Counter -affidavit. He has stated that there is do post of clerk in the office of the Amauli Range office and as the petitioner was working on daily wages no attendance register was maintained. In para 14 of the counter -affidavit he has mentioned the precise dates on which the petitioner worked between August, 1990 and 7th February, 1991, and he has also stated that after 7th February, 1991, the petitioner was absent from office and had done no work. In para 19 of the Counter -affidavit he has stated that no attendance register of daily -wages workers is maintained and their attendance is recorded on muster roll. The averments made in para 14 of the Counter -affidavit have been denied in the same vague fashion by the petitioner in the rejoinder affidavit as mentioned earlier. He did not give precise dates on which he claimed to have worked. One thing which is very important in this connection is that Shri S.P. Srivastava, Forest Range Officer, Amauli Range had sent a letter to the Divisional Forest Officer, Social Forestry, Fatehpur, on 3rd December, 1990, informing him that the petitioner had worked for four days in August 1990, 9 days in September 90, 11 days in October 1990, and 11 days in November, 90. In this letter it is further stated that the petitioner did not at all know the work of a clerk which required maintenance of registers, preparation of estimates, account work etc. He has further mentioned in his letter that the petitioner was not interested in learning any work and whenever he was asked to come and learn work he never paid any attention to the same. It is also mentioned that the petitioner was working as an agent of Peerless Insurance Co. and used to attend the forest range office occasionally with the object of getting wages of the whole month. A Copy of this letter has been filed by the petitioner as Annexure 8 -A to the contempt petition. This letter was sent by O.P. No. 2 on 3rd December, 1990, long before the contempt application had been filed by the petitioner in this Court, on 14th February, 1991. Since this letter is of a date prior to the filing of the contempt petition and has been filed' by the petitioner himself there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the same. It, therefore, appears that the petitioner has not worked in the Forest office at Amauli Range continuously from 9th August, 1990 onwards and his claim for wages for the entire period is not correct.