Gujarat High Court
Pradyumna Ramniklal Joshi vs State Of Gujarat Through Secretary ... on 8 April, 2025
Author: A.S. Supehia
Bench: A.S. Supehia
NEUTRAL CITATION
C/MCA/2475/2024 ORDER DATED: 08/04/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/MISC. CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR CONTEMPT) NO. 2475 of 2024
In R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 14886 of 2019
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PRADYUMNA RAMNIKLAL JOSHI
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT THROUGH SECRETARY ASHVINI KUMAR & ORS.
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Appearance:
MRS KRISHNA G RAWAL(1315) for the Applicant(s) No. 1
MR DEEP D VYAS(3869) for the Opponent(s) No. 2
MS. SHRUTI DHRUVE, AGP for the Opponent(s) No. 1,3
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.S. SUPEHIA
and
HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE NISHA M. THAKORE
Date : 08/04/2025
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.S. SUPEHIA)
1. The present application has been filed for initiation of contempt proceedings against the respondent authorities for non-compliance of the direction issued by the learned Single Judge vide order dated 07.08.2023. The same are as under:
"14. In view of the above, following directions are issued: -
(i) That respondent No.2- Halvad-Nagarpanchayat is directed to treat the petitioner as voluntary retired with effect from 31.05.2019.
(ii) Any contribution taken by the Municipality from the employee, is directed to be deposited with the State- Authority immediately. The Municipality is accordingly directed to prepare pension papers and forward the same to the State- Authority. The said exercise is directed to be carried out by respondent No.2- Municipality as expeditiously Page 1 of 3 Uploaded by SUYASH KUMAR SRIVASTVA(HC01570) on Wed Apr 09 2025 Downloaded on : Wed Apr 09 22:22:56 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/MCA/2475/2024 ORDER DATED: 08/04/2025 undefined as possible. However, not beyond the period of 10 weeks from the date of receipt of this order.
(iii) Upon receipt of such pension papers, the State- Authority is directed to verify the details and to make the payment of pension within a period of 10 weeks thereafter."
2. Pursuant to the various orders passed by this Court in the present application, today, the respondent- Halvad Municipality has tendered the communication dated 07.04.2025 written by the Chief Officer, Halvad Municipality. The same is ordered to be taken on record. As per the said communication, the applicant is already fixed and paid the pension as mentioned therein, basic pension is fixed as Rs.8,380/-, the date of retirement is considered as 31.05.2019 and the gratuity amount of Rs.4,86,708/-, it is already paid. However, learned advocate Mrs. Krishna G. Rawal has submitted that as soon as the present application is disposed of, the respondent will stop paying the pension as there is no pension payment order.
3. At this stage, learned AGP and learned advocate Mr. Vyas have submitted that in fact, the Municipality is not having any pension scheme and hence, it is not possible to prepare the pension payment order, which is prepared by Director of Pension i.e. the State Authorities.
4. At this stage, we may refer to the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of V. Senthur & Anr. vs. M. Vijayakumar, IAS, Secretary Tamil Nadu, Public Service Commission and Anr., (2021) SCALE 11 566, wherein the Supreme Court has categorically held that in a contempt jurisdiction the court will not travel beyond the original judgment and direction; neither would it be permissible for Page 2 of 3 Uploaded by SUYASH KUMAR SRIVASTVA(HC01570) on Wed Apr 09 2025 Downloaded on : Wed Apr 09 22:22:56 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/MCA/2475/2024 ORDER DATED: 08/04/2025 undefined the court to issue any supplementary or incidental directions, which are not found to be in the original judgment and order and the court is only concerned with the willful or deliberate non-- compliance of the directions issued in the original judgment and order.
5. We do not find any willful or deliberate defiance in the direction issued by this Court as mentioned hereinabove.
6. In case, the applicant is aggrieved by fixation of pension or non- preparation of pension payment order, it will be open for him to file appropriate proceedings before the appropriate forum.
7. In view of the above, the present Misc. Civil Application stands disposed of.
(A. S. SUPEHIA, J) (NISHA M. THAKORE,J) SUYASH SRIVASTAVA/1 Page 3 of 3 Uploaded by SUYASH KUMAR SRIVASTVA(HC01570) on Wed Apr 09 2025 Downloaded on : Wed Apr 09 22:22:56 IST 2025