Judgment

Srinivasan, J.-This is a case of gross abuse of power by the High Court in its exercise of contempt jurisdiction. The High Court has not only misunderstood the scope of its own order but also been overzeal­ous in the purported enforcement of the same with the result it has passed a totally unwarranted order casting a stigma on the appellant in Civil Appeal No. 748 of 1997 who was then the Engineer-in-Chief, Department of Irrigation, Lucknow (U.P.). The two S.L.Ps. bracketed with the appeal are against the same order-one by the State Govern­ment and its officials and the other by the second respondent in the above appeal. For the sake of convenience, we will refer to the par­ties by their ranks in the Civil appeal and the petitioners in S.L.P. No. 21052 of 1996 as the State Government.

2. By order dated 7.10.1995 the State Govt. transferred the first respondent herein who was working as Assistant Engineer from Northern Division, Ganga Canal, Roorki to IIIrd Sub-Division, Dhampur, Irriga­tion Department, Moradabad. By the same order the second respondent who was working as Assistant Engineer at Dhampur was attached to Irrigation Department, Moradabad. The second respondent fil