GURBAKHSH SINGH Vs. S PARTAP SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Section 3 of the Contempt of Courts Act raises the question whether a certain order issued by the Punjab Government is calculated to interfere with the due course of justice.

(2.) THE petitioner in this case is one S. Gurbakhsh Singh. a Forester in the Punjab forest Department, while the respondents are S. Partap Singh I. F. S. , Chief conservator of Forests, Punjab, and S. Bachan Singh, Divisional Forest Officer, amritsar.

(3.) BY an order passed by him in his capacity as Chief Conservator of Forests, S. Partap Singh required the petitioner to pay a sum of Rs. 1,136/9/7 by way of penalty for short supply of timber. Government endeavoured to deduct this amount from the salary of the petitioner, but the latter promptly brought a suit for a declaration that the order of S. Partap Singh was void and of no effect. This 'suit was followed by a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution which, however, was dismissed by a learned Judge of this Court on the 20th May 1957,