Contempt plea: Show-cause notices to CHB, Chandigarh, civic body

Tribune News Service

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, April 28

A local court has issued show-cause notices to the Chandigarh Housing Board, Land Acquisition Officer, Deputy Commissioner, Chief Architect, Municipal Corporation, Chief Engineer, UT Administration, Executive Engineer (XEN), Public Health, and Estate Officer on a contempt plea filed by Maloya residents.

Rajesh Kumar, Deputy Rana, Surinder Kumar and Kuldeep Singh have filed an application through advocate Rajesh Sood under Order 39 Rule 2-A of the CPC for punishing the respondents for disobeying/non-compliance of order passed by the court on February 23, 2022 and May 25, 2022.

In the orders, the court directed the respondents to provide basic facilities to residents of Maloya village residing in extended ‘abadi’ areas.

In the application, the residents said they were left by the government during consolidation for residential purposes and had been residing there from more than 30 years. They said except electricity connections, no other basic amenities had been provided to them.

They have made several representations to all departments of the UT Administration, but the departments are avoiding their responsibilities and not taking any action. They have been demanding amenities such as pucca road/passage, sewerage, drainage, water connection and street lighting during the pendency of the civil suit.

The court in its order dated February 23, 2022 had allowed their application and directed the respondents to provide basic amenities to them as early as possible. Despite that, compliance of this order has not been made by the respondents till today. They said the respondents were misleading the court by giving statements without doing anything on the ground.

The respondents are shirking from their responsibility for making compliance of orders of the court and putting the responsibility of their work from one office to another.

They said a status report was submitted by the Deputy Commissioner, UT, regarding compliance of order, but nothing happened on the ground. They said none of the respondents was ready to comply with the order passed by the predecessor of this court. Since the respondents had not complied with the orders of the court, contempt proceedings were liable to be initiated against them.

The court in the show-cause notices asked the respondents to explain as to why the contempt proceedings might not be initiated against them for non-compliance of the orders. The court has adjourned the hearing in the case for May 19, 2023.

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