Sunil Ambwani, J. - (1.) This contempt petition has been filed for taking action against the opposite parties for the willful disobedience of the direction of this Court dated 21.1.1999 in writ petition No. 21260 of 1998 for deciding applicants representation regarding their grievance to the authority concerned who was required to decide the same within two months of the production of certified copy of the order in accordance with law.
(2.) The applicant, U.P. Urdu Development Organisation through its Secretary Dr. Parwaz Ulum filed writ petition with the prayer to grant a writ of general mandamus commanding the respondents to issue all Government advertisements in Urdu Newspapers also. The petitioner also prayed for a writ of certiorari quashing the advertisement dated 12.6.1998 published in 'Rastriya Sahara', and a writ of mandamus commanding the Chairman/District Rural Development Agency to readvertise in the Urdu Newspaper according to Government order dated 14.4.1988 and Notification dated 7.10.1989 and Government Order dated 19.11.1990.
(3.) Notices were issued on 14.9.1999 to comply with the order dated 21.1.1999 in Writ Petition No. 21260 of 1998 within one month or to show cause by filing counter affidavit as to why opposite party be not punished for non-compliance of the order. In response to the notice, appearance was put on behalf of the District Magistrate and that after seeking on adjournment on 20.9.1999, the counter affidavit of Sri Alok Tandon, District Magistrate, Allahabad dated 12.1.2000 was filed in which he stated in paragraph 7 that he is not competent authority to decide representation of the petitioner. He further stated that the representation moved by the applicant pertains to policy matter formulated by the State Government, therefore, the power of any checking in the aforesaid policy matter vests with the State Government i.e., the Secretary of the concerned department. A counter affidavit of Sri Faujdar Mali, Deputy Director of Information, Allahabad was also filed in which it was stated that the orders passed by the Additional Director Information, U.P., Lucknow dated 17.4.1999, on the representation of the applicants in compliance of the order of the Court, has been communicated to him. The said order has been annexed as Annexure CA-1 to his affidavit. A perusal of this order issued by the Additional Director Information shows that the representation dated 19.2.1999 which was received in the Information department on 26.2.1999, has been decided by a reasoned order dated 17.4.999. In this Office Memorandum it has been stated in paragraph 7 that in accordance with notification dated 7.10.1989 and Government Order dated 19.11.1990 issued under the Official Language (Amendment) Act, 1989, in which it has been provided that all the Government Rules, Regulations, Notifications and Government Orders, relating to public policy, documents and important Government decisions shall also be published in Urdu Language. In G.O. dated 14.8.1988 it has been provided that all the departments, Local and Autonomous Bodies shall issue all their advertisements after verification from the Information department and the concerned vouchers shall be paid accordingly. But subsequently by order dated 24.1.1991 the said G.Os. were amended and that Local Bodies and Autonomous Institutions were exempted from the G.O. dated 14.4.1988. After the said amendment by G.O. dated 24.1.1991, the Local Bodies and Autonomous Institutions are not concerned with the Information department of the State Government, for issuing any advertisement and that appropriate relief with regard to said Institutions can be obtained directly from them. With regard to the second contention raised, it was provided in the Office Memorandum that the State Government has decided a policy in September, 1984 by Government Order to issue advertisements to the extent that 70% of the budget was to be utilized for Hindi, 20% or English and 10% for Urdu for issuing advertisement, according to which the advertisements are issued by the Information department and apart from this the newspapers in Urdu language are also give deposited and classified advertisement, according to requirement. For the last contention, of the applicants, the Office Memorandum provided that since the rules relating to policy decisions and advertisement of 1999 are not related to general public, and were concerned only with the newspapers, of which the editors have full knowledge of Hindi language, these were not published in Urdu, and so far as giving advertisement to Hindi/Urdu newspaper in the ratio of 2 : 1, the policy can only be decided by the State Government.;