Guilty of Courts Contempt Special Sec Social Welfare detained till rising of Court: Allahabad HC

Taking a serious note of disobedience of the court order, the Allahabad High Court held Rajnish Chandra, special secretary, department of Social Welfare, UP guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to detention in the court and will remain in the court till the rising of the court at 1 p.m.

Besides, the court in its order dated December 20 imposed a fine of Rs 2000/- payable by January 4, 2025, to the registrar general of this court. On failure of the payment of the fine, the contemnor shall undergo one month of imprisonment for which a warrant shall be issued by the chief judicial magistrate, Allahabad.

After the court order, he was taken into custody by the court officer and remained in custody till 1 p.m.

It is alleged that the said officer prevented payment of salary to the applicant in terms of the high court order dated March 4, 2024.

Hearing a contempt petition filed by Smt Suman Devi, Justice Salil Kumar Rai observed, “The act of the special secretary in trying to pass the buck and his role in preventing payment of salary to the applicant in terms of the order dated March 4, 2024, passed by this court shows that the apology tendered by the Special Secretary is not sincere and has been given only to avoid punishments in the proceedings.

“This court must take a strict view of the matter so far as the special secretary is concerned and wield the weapon of contempt to uphold and maintain the dignity of this court and also the majesty of the law”, the court added in its order dated December 20.

The petitioner – Suman Devi was working in Dr. BR Ambedkar Shiksha Sadan, Abu Nagar, Fatehpur,r and was to retire on April 10, 20,22 was accordingly given sessions benefit and was permitted to retire at the end of the session on March 31,  2023. When she was not paid a salary for the whole extended period of employment, she approached the high court.

This court vide order dated March 4, 2024, allowed the prayer of the applicant and disposed of the writ petition with the direction that the petitioner shall be paid her salary from April 1, 2022, till the end of the session.  When this order was not complied with, she filed the present writ petition.