Bombay High Court sentences 5 high-ranking State officers to civil imprisonment for contempt of court, before staying order

The Bombay High Court on Thursday sentenced five high-ranking State government officers to one month of civil imprisonment for contempt of its orders, before eventually staying the sentence for a week..A Bench of Justices GS Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain was hearing a plea pending since 2022 filed by 21 petitioners who claimed that the State had failed to allot them land on account of being project-affected persons. After multiple orders passed by the Court seeking affidavits of compliance, it issued a show cause notice to the following five officers on June 28:Aseem Gupta (former Principal Secretary of Relief and Rehabilitation Department),Bijaysinh Deshmukh (Pune Additional Collector),Uttam Patil (Deputy Collector in Rehabilitation Department),Sachin Kale (Revenue Officer)Praveen Salunkhe (Land Acquisition Department)..In March 2022, the Maharashtra government undertook to allot land to the petitioners within a period of six months. When the government failed to do so, the petitioners moved a contempt petition.Despite notices being issued by the Court, the officers failed to file their responses. This irked the Bench, which called upon all five officers to remain present in court on August 30.Barring one officer, all others failed to appear.The Court granted one more opportunity to the officers to remain present on Thursday, but only four officers turned up..Angered at this behaviour, the Court held the officers to be in contempt and ordered civil imprisonment of one month to each. “We can never imagine such conduct by an officer and such disregard to the process of this Court. There was miscommunication maybe, but the High Court orders, the majesty of this Court, and the esteem, everything is being taken for granted,” the Bench remarked. It even went to observe in its order that the officers were not fit to hold public offices. “We have observed that they have no regard for the rule of law, the constitution and that they are not even fit to be in public service.".However, the matter was mentioned after the lunch break by Senior Advocate Milind Sathe, who, on behalf of the contemnors, prayed for a stay on the order and requested the Court to grant them another opportunity to present their side. He pointed out that the show cause notice had not been served on the officers, some of whom had been procedurally transferred to other departments.He even pointed out that the alleged contemnors were not even aware of the contempt proceedings being heard by the Court..The Court was not convinced by this argument, as the government pleaders appearing in the case had failed to point it out in any of the earlier hearings. However, it agreed to grant the officers one last chance and issued a show cause notice again. “We have our hearts open and large, therefore we will put you to notice again. But we are aghast at this plea after our order is pronounced,” the Bench observed..The Court thus stayed its order sentencing the officers to civil imprisonment for a week, and posted the matter for hearing on September 6, on which date the officers are required to remain present before the court. .[Read order]