Allahabad High Court: In a public interest litigation owing to the continuous strike by the Kanpur Bar Association and the Lawyers’ Association, Kanpur, the 7-Judge Bench of Pritinker Diwaker, C.J. Sunita Agarwal, Surya Prakash Kesarwani, Manoj Kumar Gupta, Anjani Kumar Mishra, Dr. Kaushal Jayendra Thaker, Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, JJ. held that the noticees and the other office bearers, prima facie, are in deliberate and wilful contempt of this Court by interfering in the administration of justice, calling illegal strike since 16-3-2023 and thereby paralysing the judicial work in the district judgeship at Kanpur and they have made themselves liable to face contempt proceedings.
The Bench, after referring its previous orders and report of the District Judge, Kanpur said that the strike is still continuing, and the judicial work continues to be hampered in Kanpur Nagar despite the aforesaid orders passed by this Court.
Further, it said that Prima facie, it appears that the noticees have failed to discharge the obligation called upon them to call off the strike and to resume the judicial work, as directed by this Court. Thus, prima facie, they appear to be in contempt of Court.The Court said that it appears that though the notices were served upon the noticees on 6-4-2023 no general body meeting has been called by the office bearers of both the Associations at Kanpur and the directions issued by the Court to resume the judicial work forthwith and to purge the contempt, have been flouted.
In addition to this, the Court said that a warning has also been given to the Advocates General Secretary, Kanpur Bar Association and the Lawyers’ Association, Kanpur in the aforesaid notice dated 6-4-2023 that they would not perform any judicial work, administrative work or registration of cases and in case, any lawyer is found to be working as against the decision of the general body, his membership from the Kanpur Bar Association and the Lawyers’ Association, Kanpur would be terminated and a recovery of Rs. 5,000/- as penalty would be made from such lawyers.
The Court noted that the video recording of the strike, as made available by the District Judge, shows that the agitating lawyers indulged in slogan shouting, using abusive and derogatory language against the entire district judiciary, including the District Judge.
Thus, the Court held that the noticees and the other office bearers, prima facie, are in deliberate and wilful contempt of this Court.
[Zila Adhivakta Sangh Allahabad, In Re, 2023 SCC OnLine All 128, decided on 06-04-2023]
