DEVENDRA MISHRA Vs. RAJIVA LOCHAN PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PURSUANT to our earlier direction the Advocate General and officers of the Government including the Law Secretary are present. The learned counsel Mr. M.P.Gupta and other counsel are, also, present.

(2.) ON behalf of the respondents, an affidavit, in reply, by way of show cause, has been filed by the Chief Secretary, along with Annexures A to G, running into 63 pages. Our attention has been drawn, relying upon the said affidavit, that the pendency of contempt cases, pending against Government, as on 9.8.2006, was 481 which has now, been reduced to 85 which is heartening and encouraging. It has been further stated that out of 85 such cases, 12 more cases have been dealt with in the meanwhile.

(3.) SO far as six cases as per Annexure G, annexed to the show cause, namely, MJC No. 1040 of 1994, MJC No. 2576 of 1995, MJC No. 438 of 1997, MJC No. 1032 of 1997, MJC No. 1087 of 1997, and MJC No. 993 of 1993, are concerned, it has been submitted that they have not been identified and it is not clear whether they are contempt matters or not. On getting the matter enquired from the Registry, with reference to Annexure G, it appears that all these six matters, as enumerated in the list, Annexure G annexed along with the affidavit filed today, are old contempt matters. The respondents are, therefore, directed to attend these cases on priority basis because they are very old matters.