MOHINDRA LAL Vs. HARI DEV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is directed against an order dated November 6, 1981 of Chief Justice Shri V.D. Mishra in Contempt Petition (Civil) 5 of 1981. The learned Chief Justice, after noticing the circumstances brought before him on the record, said in his order of November 6, 1981, that:

(2.) The present Appellant, Shri Mohinder Lal, was the first Respondent in Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 5 of 1981.

(3.) One of the questions agitated before us, when the appeal was taken up for hearing, was about the maintainability of appeal. It was said that, inasmuch as, the Appellant had been discharged by the learned Chief Justice, the present appeal was not maintainable. The submission in this regard was founded upon some observations of the Supreme Court in D.N. Taneja v/s. Bhajan Lal ( : 1988 3 SCC 26). The decision of the Supreme Court was in regard to an appeal filed under Sec. 19(1) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 (hereinafter, "the Act") by Taneja whose application for contempt filed against Respondent Bhajan Lal, then the Chief Minister of the State, had been dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Taneja then filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.