41 Regular HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT SRINAGAR CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 Amarjeet Singh ….. Petitioner (s) Through: Mr. Onkar Singh, Adv. V/s Tasaduq Hussain and anr. ….. Respondent(s) Through: Mr. Furqaan Yaqoob, GA Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rahul Bharti, Judge. ORDER 10.03.2025 1. The petitioner came to join as Government Teacher in the Education Department of the then State of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1983 and was last posted in 1997 Zone Wagoora Baramulla, whereafter he was said to have proceeded on leave on the purported ground of illness of his father coming to report back in the month of September 2003 when he was not allowed to join back, which constrained the petitioner to come up with the writ petition bearing SWP No. 1201/2003 i.e, almost after a P a g e | 2 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 period of 2 ½ years of being not allowed to rejoin w.e.f September 2003. 2. In the writ petition, no reply was filed by or invited from the writ respondents and without closing the respondents’ right to file reply, the writ court, by virtue of order dated 21.02.2007, came to dispose of the writ petition with the following directions: “The petitioner shall approach the Director School Education who shall call for the service record of the petitioner. In case the petitioner’s service is still intact ad he has not so far been terminated from the services, the Director, shall get an enquiry conducted into for the absence of the petitioner from duty. The enquiry assigned to a senior officer and the petitioner be associated with the said enquiry and shall be given due opportunity to present his case and also show cause for his absence. In case, the concerned authorities find that the petitioner had a sufficient cause for not attending the duty, they may pass appropriate orders and settle the period of his absence in accordance with the rules. The petitioner, in such a case shall be allowed to join his duties. However, P a g e | 3 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 in case it is found that the petitioner has been terminated from the service by means of a formal order, the concerned authorities shall furnish a copy of the order to the petitioner for appropriate remedy available to him. The exercise be undertaken and a final orer be passed I the matter within period of four months from the date the copy of this order is served on the respondents.” 3. The mandate of the writ court direction was to operate in alternative i.e, in case the petitioner was not formally terminated, then he was to be allowed to rejoin and then proceeded against in a departmental inquiry, and if already terminated by a formal order then to deliver him the order of termination in order to enable the petitioner seek out the legal remedies. 4. Needful exercise at the end of the writ respondents was to be done within a period of four weeks from the date a certified copy of order dated 21.02.2007 was to be served upon the said respondents. 5. Being aggrieved of the conduct that the incumbents at the time serving as the Director School Education, Kashmir, the Chief P a g e | 4 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 Education Officer, Baramulla and the Zonal Education Officer, Wagoora of not having acted in compliance to the writ court direction by reference to either of the two contingencies attended to in the order dated 21.02.2007, the petitioner came forward with the institution of a contempt petition, bearing Contempt No. 400/2007 on 03.11.2007, before this Court. 6. 6. The said contempt petition came to be responded by the then Director School Education, Kashmir by Statement of Facts filed on 25.09.2009 in which the following facts came to be put up and are herein summarized: i) Posting of the petitioner as Teacher in the Government Middle School Wagoora in the year 1998; ii) Petitioner proceeded on leave from 02.03.1998 to 28th August 1998; iii) Petitioner not reporting upon expiry of the leave and then coming forward in September 2003 to rejoin and resume the duty; iv) The petitioner submitting an application for rejoining before ZEO concerned who in turn forward the application of the petitioner to the Director School Education Kashmir who, in turn, vide communication No. 49/2003/4003 dated P a g e | 5 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 30.12.2003 directed the Chief Education Officer (CEO), Baramulla with a reference that as per the article 113 of the Civil Services Regulations, an employee even on leave for a period exceeding five years is considered out of employment and as such, the Chief Education Officer, Baramulla was directed to take necessary action in accordance with the said provision of Civil Services Regulations; v) Zonal Education Officer, Wagoora came out passing order No. ZEO/1721-23 dated 14.11.2006 rejecting the petitioner’s application for rejoining; vi) The petitioner being given a copy of order No. ZEO-1721-23 dated 14.11.2006. 7. In light of the aforesaid recitals of facts, Director School Education Kashmir in her statement of facts came to seek dismissal of the contempt petition No. 400/2007. The contempt petition No. 400/2007 remained long pending on the docket of this Court, during pendency of which the original named contemnors/respondents in the contempt petition came to be substituted by new officers posted, without P a g e | 6 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 the petitioner taking any steps for bringing on record successors in office. 8. It was in the background of the aforesaid state of pendency that the contempt petition No. 400/2007 came to be disposed of by this Court in terms of an order dated 12.07.2021 calling upon the petitioner to approach the then present incumbents with a copy of the writ court order for seeking implementation of the same in case same had remained unimplemented and still if the petitioner was left with the grievances then the petitioner to file appropriate proceeding for implementation of the same in accordance with law. 9. It is, thus, in the aforesaid manner that the institution of the present contempt petition, bearing CCP(S) No. 200/2022, came to take place on 17.05.2022. 10. Ever since 17.05.2022, this court is struggling to make head and tail of the present case as to whether any act of omission or commission has taken place either at the end of the originally named contemnors or by their successors in office for warranting continuation of the contempt proceedings in P a g e | 7 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 the matter or the proceedings are heading towards no end except engaging time of the court in a meaningless exercise. 11. During the pendency of this contempt petition, another twist in tail came to take place when the Director School Education Kashmir came forward with the issuance of an Order No. 329-DSEK of 2023 dated 18.12.2023 thereby declaring that the petitioner is deemed of being out of government service in terms of article 113 of the J&K Civil Service Rules Volume I of 1956 w.e.f 30.12.2003 for being continuously on unauthorized absence from the duty w.e.f 1.3.1998. 12. It is by reference to this Order No. 329-DSEK of 2023 dated 18.12.2023 that a plea came to be made for giving closure to this contempt petition. The petitioner has already resorted to legal remedy against said order dated 18.12.2023 of the Director School Education Kashmir. 13. Given the intervening development, it is an admitted situation before this Court as a matter of fact that at no point of time, the writ respondents came forward with the letter and spirit compliance of the direction as given in the order dated 21.02.2007 disposing of the writ petition bearing SWP No. P a g e | 8 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 1201/2006 thereby complicating a very simple set out disposal of the writ petition SWP No. 1201/2006. 14. The directions given in order dated 21.02.2007 were not meant to enable the writ respondents to act post to the disposal of the writ petition SWP No. 1201/2006 and rather the direction warranted that if the petitioner had not already been terminated then the petitioner be allowed to rejoin and then proceed under the relevant services Rules, in case and if already terminated by an order in existence then to deliver the petitioner a copy of said order of termination. 15. Neither of two situations came to be attended by the writ respondents and therefore, the petitioner was well within his right to assert at the relevant point of time of filing of the first contempt petition bearing Contempt No. 400/2007 that the direction to the writ court has gone begging for compliance. 16. However during the pendency of this contempt petition which is more of a revival of the original contempt petition, the petitioner has been granted liberty by this Court to assail order dated 18.12.2023 that would subsume to the facet of the controversy involved in the matter and this Court would not P a g e | 9 CCP(S) No. 200/2022 In SWP No. 1201/2006 prejudice either of the two sides in their cause by undertaking adjudication of the present contempt petition on the merits and therefore, close this contempt petition with full liberty to the petitioner to agitate his grievances before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Srinagar Bench. 17. 17. Nothing observed herein by this Court in the matter of disposal of the contempt petition will be taken to be any observation on the merits of the matter for or against both the parties. 18. Disposed of as above. (Rahul Bharti) Judge SRINAGAR 10.03.2025 Aasif Whether the order is speaking Yes/No Whether the order is reportable Yes/No