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Judgment
Hon''ble Shri Justice S.K. Seth
This petition u/s 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 (''the Act'' for short) is filed to initiate contempt proceedings against respondent for the alleged disobedience of the Order dated 18.3.2008 passed by this Court in W.P. No. 7945 of 2003. Facts giving rise to the petition, in a nut-shell are as under. A regular departmental enquiry was initiated against the applicant on serious charge of misconduct. In the enquiry, charge was found proved consequently Senior Superintendent of Police (Radio), Bhopal vide order dated 31.8.1999 imposed penalty of compulsory retirement from service.
On appeal, I.G. Police (Radio), by order dated 29.3.2000 reinstated applicant in service and a penalty of reversion to lower post of Constable (Radio) for a period of three years'' was imposed. Further appeal to D.G. Police was of no avail and the order of the I.G. Police (Radio) was maintained.
Applicant challenged the said punishment order before the M.P. State Administrative Tribunal by filing an Original Application. Upon abolition of the Tribunal, Original Application stood transferred to this Court. It was registered as W. P. No. 7945 of 2003. As stated above, said petition was allowed by this Court and direction was issued to I.G. Police (Radio) to reconsider the appeal and pass a fresh order of penalty.
That in compliance of said order I.G. Police (Radio) once again considered and dismissed the appeal by Order dated 14.5.2008. It seems that without bringing this order to the knowledge of the Court, applicant filed Contempt Case No. 547/2008 and it was disposed off by Order dated 5.9.2008 by extending the time to three months to enable the appellate authority to comply with the Order dated 18.3.2008. Had the correct facts been brought to the notice of the Court, there would have been no occasion to extend the time. Be that as it may, suffice it to say that after the Order dated 5.9.2008 was passed, I.G. Police (Radio) passed an another order dated 24.12.2008 imposing punishment of withholding 2 annual increments with cumulative effect. This according to applicant amounts to contempt of this Court.
After hearing learned counsel for applicant and going through the material placed on record, We are of the considered opinion that in order to overreach the said punishment order this contempt petition is filed with an application u/s 5 of the Limitation Act on the premise that as the penalty of reduction in post was set aside, the applicant is entitled to get arrears of salary with annual grade increments. This aspect of matter has already been taken care of by the I.G. Police (Radio) Indore by passing an order on 6.3.2009 holding that the applicant will get his dues as per rules. We do not find any infirmity or flaw with either of the two orders dated 24.12.2008 or 6.3.2009 mentioned above. We also find that these two orders do not interfere or tend to interfere with the due course of justice which is sine qua non to punish a person of contempt. We cannot permit the applicant to invoke and misuse the contempt jurisdiction in this fashion. The action for contempt can only be taken if it is in the larger interest of administration of justice and not for giving relief to a party for ventilation of his private grievance. Besides this, we have serious misgivings whether an application u/s 5 of the Limitation Act would lie to condone the delay in view of specific bar created u/s 20 of the Act. See Om Prakash Jaiswal Vs. D.K. Mittal and Another [OVERRULED], . Bar of limitation prescribed u/s 20 ibid appears to be absolute. In view of above discussion, we find no merit or substance in the petition. Consequently it stands dismissed in-limine. Ordered accordingly.