State Of J&K vs Prabhat Singh And Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 1755 j&K

                                                                 Serial No. 04

        HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH
                        AT JAMMU

                                                   SWP No. 2702/2013
                                                   IA No. 3988/2013

State of J&K                                           ....Petitioner(s)/Appellant(s)
                   Through :- Mrs. Monika Kohli, Sr. AAG.

         V/s

Prabhat Singh and Ors.                                            ....Respondent(s)

                  Through :-   None.

Coram: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV KUMAR, JUDGE
          HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAHUL BHARTI, JUDGE

                                      ORDER

24.08.2023

The then State of Jammu and Kashmir (now the UT of Jammu and

Kashmir) has invoked extra ordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court vested under

article 226 of the Constitution of India for seeking quashment of two orders

dated 01.03.2013 and 11.11.2013 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal

(CAT), Chandigarh Bench (in short "the Tribunal").

Briefly put, the relevant facts are that an O.A. preferred by the

respondent no. 1, bearing no. 317-JK of 2011, came to be allowed by the

Tribunal vide its order and judgment dated 31.05.2011. The Tribunal held the

respondent no. 1 entitled to be considered for appointment by promotion to the

Indian Police Service (IPS) against the vacancies available for the year 2007.

The respondent no. 1 was also held entitled to all monetary and service benefits

available to him pursuant to his appointment by promotion to IPS against the

available vacancy of the year 2007.

IA No. 3988/2013

It appears that the judgment passed by the Tribunal was implemented

by the writ petitioner herein vide Govt. Order no. Home-674(P) of 2012 dated

02.08.2012. The respondent no. 1 was appointed by promotion to IPS w.e.f.

01.01.2012 and was also given the relevant pay-scale.

The respondent no. 1 was not satisfied with the compliance of the

judgment made by the petitioner herein in terms of the aforesaid Govt. Order

and, therefore, filed contempt petition before the Tribunal.

The Tribunal completely misconstrued the judgment passed by it and

came to the conclusion that not only the respondent no. 1 was entitled to be

appointed by promotion in IPS against the vacancy of 2007 but was also entitled

to all the benefits of such promotion w.e.f. the year 2007. It is because of this

erroneous understanding of its own judgment that the impugned orders came to

be passed by the Tribunal.

We have carefully gone through the judgment passed by the Tribunal

dated 31.05.2011 and we are of the considered view that with the appointment of

the respondent no. 1 by promotion in IPS in terms of Govt. Order dated

02.08.2012 (supra), the judgment passed by the Tribunal has been fully

implemented. There was, thus, no warrant for proceeding in the contempt against

the petitioners. The orders impugned in this writ petition were clearly uncalled

for and beyond the scope of the judgment rendered by the Tribunal.

For these reasons, we allow this writ petition and quash the impugned

orders. In view of the clear view taken by us with regard to the misconstruction

and erroneous understanding of the judgment passed by the Tribunal, it would be

IA No. 3988/2013

futile on the part of the Tribunal to proceed in the contempt petition. The

contempt proceedings pending before the Tribunal shall thus stand quashed.

A copy of this order be forwarded to Central Administrative Tribunal

(CAT), now Jammu Bench for information and appropriate follow up action to

consign the contempt petition to records.

Disposed of.

                                 (Rahul Bharti)   )        (Sanjeev Kumar)
                                     Judge                      Judge
Jammu:
24.08.2023
Bunty