Delhi High Court imposes Rs 25K costs after appellant seeks investigation in relation to order by Single Judge

The Delhi High Court has imposed costs of Rs 25,000 after an Appellant sought an investigation into the manner in which a Single Judge Bench did "not issuing effective order" in his matter. (Riddhima Singh vs CBSE)...this is nothing but contempt of court.Delhi High Court said. .The order was passed by a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan. .The Appellant, through his father, had filed a writ petition raising grievances in relation to the fees charged, the books prescribed and the financial affairs of her school etc..It was alleged in the writ petition that the Petitioner had not been permitted to attend the school for several months now..Earlier this year, a direction was passed by a Single Judge Bench permitting the Appellant to write the exam of Standard-VII. However, because of COVID-19, the examination could not take place. .Eventually, in September, the Single Judge permitted the Appellant to sit for Standard-VIII examination within four weeks and if successful, she could be enroled to Standard-IX. .Before the Division Bench, which was hearing the appeal against the order, the Appellant said that he did not want to appear in the examination as now there was insufficient time left for her to cover the syllabus of Standard-IX..The Court noted that before the Single Judge, the Appellant had agreed to appear in the examination and the writ petition was anyway still pending. .Thus, stating that it was not expressing any view with regard to the merits of the contentions raised by the Appellant, the Court stated that the Appellant was at liberty to take appropriate steps in the writ petition. .However, before parting, the Court noted that the second prayer of the Appellant was for initiation of an investigation by an appropriate agency in respect of the manner in which the Single Judge had passed the order in September. .The prayer read as follows:."To issue order for investigation by appropriate agency to investigate reason of repeatedly ignoring facts and evidences on record before this court, and not issuing effective direction/order to respondent’s especially respondent no1 and respondent no 3.".Remarking that it was nothing but contempt of court, the Court said, ...there cannot be any investigation merely for passing of an order by the learned Single Judge, even if it is a wrong order. Appeal is the remedy available with any aggrieved party. Wrong orders can be corrected or can be quashed and set aside in an appeal, but there cannot be any investigation merely because one of the parties is aggrieved thereby..Since the father of the Appellant appeared in person and apologised for the prayers, the Court did not issue a notice of contempt against him. .The Court, nonetheless, imposed costs of Rs 25,000 on the father of the Appellant. .The costs shall be deposited with Delhi State Legal Services Authority for their programme “Access to Justice”..Read the Order: