Two Arrested From Courtroom Of Orissa High Court’s Acting Chief Justice For ‘Contemptuous’ Behaviour

In a shockingly unprecedented development, two persons including one litigant got arrested by police from the Courtroom of the Acting Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court for showing unruly and contemptuous behaviour to the Court.While asking the Registrar (Judicial) to register a suo motu contempt case, the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Dr. Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman observed:“This Court is conscious of the fact that the jurisdiction in respect of the contempt should be sparingly used. Here in a case where all efforts made by the Court as well as the learned Advocate General went in vain as the contemnors continued to cross the limits of decency.”The Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one Pravat Kumar Padhi and other villagers, who challenged the construction of the Court of Civil Judge (Junior Division) at Konark on a piece of land allotted for the said purpose. To address the needs of people and litigants at large of the villages under Konark Police Station, a decision was taken vide Notification dated 12.11.2014 issued by the Department of Law, Government of Odisha to establish a Court of Civil Judge (Junior Division) at Konark with sitting of the Court at Konark. For establishment of such Court, the Collector, Puri and the Tahasildar, Gop had taken steps for grant of allotment of land basing on the application made by the District Judge, Puri dated 11.05.2015. Since certain disputes were there, the allotment of land for the purpose of construction of the Court could not be done immediately.As there was enormous delay in allotment of the land for the Court complex, the Konark Bar Association filed a writ petition for issuance of a direction to the Government for quick settlement of the land for establishment of the Court at Konark. The said writ petition was disposed of by the Court by an order dated 03.11.2020 directing the State authority to provide the land for construction of the Court building.Since there was non-compliance of the direction made by the Court in the above order, a contempt petition was filed, which was also disposed of by order dated 24.02.2021 as the Government initiated the process for allotment of the land for establishment of Court at Konark. Before allotment of the said land, all the required procedures for demarcation, de-reservation and alienation of the land were followed and finally the land was allotted in favour of the Law Department, Government of Odisha for construction of the court building of Konark. After taking over the possession of the land, necessary steps were followed to start the construction work.After the construction work started, the petitioners filed a writ petition challenging alienation process even though they did not raise any objection during the de-reservation and alienation proceedings. The petition was disposed of by the Court asking the concerned Tahasildar to consider the representation filed by the petitioners.In compliance of the order of the Court, the Tahasildar heard the petitioners and rejected their representation. The petitioner challenged such rejection order on the ground that such order was not a reasoned one. Therefore, the Court ordered the Tahasildar to hear the representation again and to dispose of the same by a reasoned order.During the pendency of the proceedings before the Tahasildar, the petitioner again filed a contempt petition showing non-compliance of the order of the Court. However, the same was disposed of as the order was complied by the Tahasildar. Against such disposal, the petitioners preferred a special leave to appeal (SLP) before the Supreme Court, which was dismissed by the Apex Court earlier this month.Court’s ObservationsThe PIL matter came up before the Court on Wednesday but no one appeared on behalf of the petitioners. However, it was brought to the notice of the Court that the petitioners along with some other persons are obstructing the construction work of the Court and they have also manhandled persons from the executing agency.An FIR was registered against the petitioners for the above unlawful activities but they obtained an anticipatory bail from the Court apprehending arrest. The Court resentfully observed that under the protection of such bail, they are continuously hindering the construction work.When the matter was finally posted on Thursday, the petitioner Pravat Padhi appeared and sought permission to change his lawyer. However, the Court informed him that as the Supreme Court has disposed of all the pending cases, there is nothing remained which is to be adjudicated upon by the High Court.The above reply from the Bench enraged the petitioner and he started behaving ‘arrogantly’ to the Court. Further, he stated in an ‘unruly’ manner that unless he gets permission from his co-villagers, he cannot withdraw the writ petition and the same cannot be disposed of as well.At this point of time, the Court asked the petitioner to go...

Two Arrested From Courtroom Of Orissa High Court’s Acting Chief Justice For ‘Contemptuous’ Behaviour

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