Allahabad HC holds Ghazipur inspector of schools guilty of contempt of court

Prayagraj, May 26 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has held Ghazipur District Inspector of Schools (DIOS) Prakash Singh guilty of contempt for failing to comply with a four-year-old interim order directing the payment of an employee's salary.
     Rejecting the plea of Singh, the contemnor, to defer proceedings due to a pending stay vacation application, Justice Kshitij Shailendra on Monday delivered a strong defence of the rule of law and the dignity of the judiciary.
     Pointing to the staggering backlogs faced by constitutional courts, the court declared that judges cannot be expected to function as "super robots" while litigants openly treat active judicial commands as optional "decorative pieces of paper".
     The contempt application arose from a writ petition filed in 2017 by the applicant, Radhey Shyam Yadav. On April 18, 2022, the writ court issued a direction to the respondents to pay his salary during the pendency of the petition, but the order was not complied with.
     Justice Kshitij Shailendra, speaking on the high court overburdened with litigations, observed, "In heavily burdened constitutional courts, like our Allahabad High Court, where around 400, 500, 600 and sometimes more than 800 cases are listed every day before every judge, judicial proceedings may consume considerable time for disposal; sometimes years and sometimes decades also."
     "Still, people all around may expect such overburdened judges to become ever-working super robots or super computers or super-human beings? If during such pendency, parties are permitted to openly defy operative directions, the administration of justice would descend into chaos and anarchy. The law does not countenance such audacity", the judge added.
     The court emphasised that the dignity of the judiciary rests entirely on public confidence and the strict enforcement of its orders, warning against the erosion of constitutional governance.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)