Taking note of a large number of civil contempt of court petitions filed by citizens alleging failure of government officials in adhering to the court’s orders, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday said that the State government has to set up a machinery to overcome this scenario.
The court observed that there is no mechanism in the government to implement the court’s orders, after the office of the State Advocate-General forwards the copies of the court’s orders in various cases.
There should be nodal officers in the government to ensure implementation of the court’s order by bringing such orders to the notices of the officials concerned, said a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty, while suo motu taking note of large number of contempt petitions being filed by the litigants.
The litigant-citizens are put to loss in two ways due to the non implementation of court’s order as they are not only unable to get the fruit of the orders in their favour but are also forced to spend money for the contempt of court proceedings, the Bench pointed out.
Also, the Bench said that even the government officers would also not benefit from the contempt proceedings as they will have to attend to such proceedings instead of carrying out their regular duties besides requiring to engage private advocates in contempt proceedings.
Observing that it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that its officials adhere to the court’s orders, the Bench asked the government to make a statement whether it is willing to establish a machinery to implement court orders by designating nodal officers.
