State machineries continue to face civil contempt petitions
Moa Jamir
Dimapur | July 7
Apart from delay in submission of affidavits, non-compliance of judicial orders seem to be a regular affair for the Government of Nagaland (GoN) and other State machineries, analysis of records of case status in the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench indicated.
Accordingly, the GoN has been subjected to several Civil Original Petitions (Contempt) or COP (C) on a regular basis in the High Court, taking up the Court’s time, among others, and leading pendency of cases.
Two such contempt petitions were heard before Justice Kakheto Sema on July 7.
The first was concerning a COP(C) filed by a petitioner for non-compliance of the HC’s order dated February 23, 2022 regarding a writ petition (WP) for appointment to a job against the resultant vacancy arising out of a retirement in the state Department of School Education.
The Court had disposed the WP directing the respondent authorities to consider the case of the petitioner in terms of the Office Memorandum (OM) dated September 17, 2015 taking into consideration that the petitioner had filed the application as early as 2008, but was still pending.
With no response from the respondent authorities, the petitioner approached the Court again with the contempt petition.
The second case was another non-compliance of the Court’s order issued on September 5, 2019, whereby, it directed the State respondents to consider the petitioner’s case for appointment on compassionate ground, if found eligible under the provision of September 17, 2017 OM.
“Such exercise should be taken up and completed within a period of 3 (three) months from the date of a copy of this order,” the order then stated.
In both cases, Justice Sema issued notices to the (State) respondents, returnable within four weeks and listing the matter for hearing again accordingly.
What is ‘Contempt of Court?
As per the Section 2 (B) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt petitions are divided into two categories – Civil Original Petition (Contempt) and Criminal Original Petition (Contempt).
“Criminal contempt,” among others, pertained to the “publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which (i) scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or (ii) prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or (iii) interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.”
While criminal contempt in rarely invoked, the ‘civil contempt’ defined as “wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court” is a regular feature in the HC Kohima Bench.
Wilful Disobedience?
As per the Court’s record, a total of 19 COP (C) that were filed this year alone, were pending before the Gauhati HC Kohima Bench till July 7. During the same period two such cases were disposed off.
In addition, 11 COP (C) filed in 2021, were pending before the Court while 22 were disposed off.
Likewise, in 2020, a total of 20 COP (C) were disposed off, while 11 cases are still pending from that year, as per the Court’s data assessed on July 7.
In 2019 and 2018, the HC Kohima Bench disposed of 39 and 29 COP (C) respectively. (See Table)
In most cases, it is either the Government of Nagaland or concerned departments or both, who are taken to task for not complying with the Court’s order and directives.
Besides, most writ petitions as well as public interest litigations (PIL) are also filed against State respondents. During such hearings, the State respondents, among others, are often pulled up by the Court for failing to file affidavits or missing stipulated deadline.
No wonder, Gauhati HC Judge, & Executive Chairman, Nagaland State Legal Services Authority (NSLSA) Justice Songkhupchung Serto during a function in May this year observed that a staggering 99% of court cases are against government while observing that, “our bureaucrats commit mistakes because of the lack of knowledge on the law.”
Justice Serto further maintained that if every administrators, bureaucrats, and legislators studies law for three years, they will become better at their profession as the ‘government is governed by the law.’
