CHENIRAM GOGOI Vs. K K KAPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this application under Section 11 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, hereinafter referred to as an Act, the petitioners herein sought for initiation of Contempt of Courts proceeding and also for punishing the respondents herein for contempt of Court for their wilful violation and defiance of the judgment and order dated 15.11.1994 passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in Civil Rule No. 1198 of 1993 and also the order of 3rd April, 1995 passed by this Court in Writ Appeal No. 29 of 1995; contending interalia, that as aggrieved by the actions of the Respondents concerned, concerning to the unequal treatments meted out amongst the equals, they filed a writ petition being Civil Rule No. 1198 of 1993 before this Court for ventilating their grievances ;and accordingly, this Court heard the matter finally and allowed the prayer of the present petitioners under the judgment and order dated 15.11.94 thus directing the present respondent Nos. 1,2,3,4, and 5 to pass necessary orders promoting the present petitioners on and from 1.1.1986 and give all the monetary benefits w.e.f, 1.1.1986 to 3.1.1989 or to their respective date of promotion and the same should be done within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the aforesaid order of 15.1 i. 1994. It is also the case of the present petitioners that the present respondents being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order of 15.11.94 passed in the aforesaid Civil Rule No. 1198 of 1993, had preferred an appeal being Writ Appeal No. 29 of 1995 before this Court and the came is pending for disposal; and that the said writ appeal was duly heard for admission on 7.3.95, 10.3.95 and 3.4.95 and thereafter, this Court after hearing the parties admitted the appeal and passed the following interim order on 3.4.95 and also with certain modification of the said interim order on 5.4.95. The operative part of the orden is as under:

(2.) The contempt petition is contested by the respondents by filing their respective counter- affidavits on the same and similar line of defence by contending inter alia, that being aggrieved by the (order of 15. 11.94 passed by this Court in Civil Rule No. 1198 of 1993, an appeal being Writ Appeal No. 29 of 1995 has been preferred and the said Writ Appeal came up for admission before a Division Bench of this Court consisting of Hon'blc the Chief Justice and Hon'ble Mr. Justice A. Deb and the said appeal was admitted on 3.4.95 with an interim order staying the operation of the impugned order of 15.11.94 subject to the condition that the Appellants , Respondents herein should give the same benefits on the same terms which had been given to the employees of the Central Zone, to the other employees of the remaining zones in the employment of O.N.G.C. As aggrieved by the aforesaid interim order of conditional stay, the O.N.G.C. as appellant filed a Review Petition being Review Application No. 36 of 1995 for modification / alteration or review of the aforesaid orders of 3rd April and 5th April, 1995 passed in the aforesaid Writ Appeal No. 29 of 1995 which was later on disposed of on 30.11.95 with the following orders :

(3.) The respondents went on to contend that they did not defy the Court's order, as such there is no question of wilful and negligent disobedience of the aforesaid orders of this Court. However, if by way of interpretation or otherwise it appears that there was some element of disobedience of Courts order due to wrong understanding, with bonafide belief, they beg unconditional apology for such unintentional or unwilful act or omission and pray for absolving them of the offences of contempt of Court.