D N TANEJA Vs. BHAJAN LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal under section 19(1) of the Contempt of Courts Act, hereinafter referred to as 'the Act', is directed against the judgment and order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the application for contempt filed by the appellant against Shri Bhajan Lal, who was then the Chief Minister of the State.

(2.) In the application for contempt, it was, inter alia, alleged by the appellant that one Shri Devinder Sharma was a Forest Minister in the Council of Ministers headed by Shri Bhajan Lal. The said Devinder Sharma was defeated in the legislative assembly election held in 1982. Shri Bhajan Lal, because of his political and personal relations with Shri Devinder Sharma, was personally very keen on giving him an office of profit. In order to achieve this objective, Bhajan Lal got an Ordinance being Ordinance No. 44 of 1982 promulgated by the Governor. The Ordinance, inter alia, provided for the Constitution of a Forest Development Board. According to the appellant, such Board was constituted with a view to appointing the said Devinder Sharma as its Chairman.

(3.) It was further alleged by the appellant that the constitutional validity of the said Ordinance was challenged by twelve Indian Forest Officers including the appellant by filing a writ petition in the High Court. It was alleged that the respondent, Bhajan Lal, through Shri R.K. Vashisth, the Superintendent of Police, pressurised and threatened the writ petitioners to withdraw the said writ petition and, pursuant to that, eleven officers withdrew from the petition. It was only the appellant who continued to prosecute the writ petition and, as a consequence of which, the appellant was transferred from the Forest Expert Special Project Cell to the Forest Department, Haryana on March 18, 1983. The further allegation of the appellant was that after having failed to threaten and demoralise the appellant through indirect means the respondent, Bhajan Lal, called him to his official residence on July 26, 1983 through the Acting Chief Conservator of Forests and criminally intimidated him to withdraw the writ petition.