New Delhi. The Delhi High Court has said in a surprising judgment that violation of every instruction issued by the court cannot be the basis for starting contempt proceedings. This decision has been pronounced by a bench of Justice Anil Kshatrapal and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan on 12 August. The case is related to the contempt petition filed by Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi. He filed a petition against the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), alleging that the court orders were repeatedly disregarded. The court directed the IB to present the relevant records including a confidential report related to Sanjeev Chaturvedi in July 2023 and August 2024.
According to the petition, IB’s CPIO did not produce these records in court, due to which Chaturvedi demanded contempt proceedings. The dispute began when in May 2014, the Ministry of Environment sought a report from the IB on the threat to Sanjeev Chaturvedi’s life, but later refused to give the report to him under the RTI Act. However, the High Court said in its judgment that contempt proceedings against an officer cannot be initiated, as the petitioner has not named the contempt.
At the same time, senior lawyers argued that when the name of IB’s website and CPIO is not in the public domain, how could the name be given. It is also noteworthy that in March 2024, a single bench of the Delhi High Court issued contempt notice to the CPIO of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the petition of Sanjeev Chaturvedi.
Here, law experts say that the violation of any directive of the court under Section 2B of the Retirement Act 1971 of the court acts intentionally in the category of contempt of the court. There is no discrimination of any kind in it.
Also read – Click to read your state / city news before the newspaper
