Judgement

K. RAMASWAMY, J.:- Leave granted.

2. This appeal by special leave arises from the order dated 14th October, 1993 of the Allahabad High Court made in Writ Petition No. Nil of 1993 titled The Taxation Bar Association, Agra through its General Secretary v. The State of U. P. through the Secretary, Institutional Finance. Persuant to our direction under Article 139A(1) of the Constituion withdrawing the said writ petition to this Court,we dispose of the same ourselves.

3. The crucial question before us is whether the High Court could issue a writ or direction prohibiting a statutory authority, viz., the Appellate Authority under Section 9 of the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for short, the Act) from discharging the quasi judicial functions; direction to the State Government to withdraw all powers from it and transferring the pending cases before the officer to any other authority? Whether advocate would be justified to go on strike as a pressure group in that behalf?

4. The impuged order is the same, as prayed for in the main writ petition, which reads as under :

"Until further orders of this Court, the respondent No. 3 Satti Din is restrained from discharging his function as Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) Sales Tax, Agra under Section 9 of the U. P. Sales Tax Act. However, it will be open to the Commissioner, Sales Tax U. P. to transfer the cases pending before respondent No. 3 to some other Court."

5. The facts not in controversy are that on 2nd September, 1993, pursuant to a resoluation passed by the Taxation Bar Association, Agra, one Ramesh Chander Gupta, Advocate and President of that Association along with two others met respondent No. 3, Satti Din, the appellant authority is his chamber and accused him of "demanding illegal gratification in the discharge of his duties as appellate authority as dissatisfaction widely prevailing amongst the advocates and litigants. Allegations and counter-allegations of hurling abuses against each other have been made resulting in widespread violence. It would appear from the record that the members of the appellant-Association, the staff of the office of Deputy Commissioner and other staff of the Government officers in Agra and some general public on the one hand and advocates on the other hand alleged to have been involved in violence. Crimes have been registered against each other, with which we are not concerned and it would be inappropriate and inexpedient to mention them here in detail. Law will take its own course. Suffice it to state that the 1st respondent appears to have made a representation to the District Magistrate, Agra, who thereon asked Satti Din to go on leave on the condition that advocates would withdraw the strike. Though Satti Din had initially gone on leave, the advocates continued strike. On his superior officers instructions, Satti Din had rejoined duty as appellate authority. On registration of the crime case against the advocates, it would appear that on September 6, 1993, an emergency meeting of Associations of Agra and Firozabad was held and it was resolved to boycott all the Courts and observe total strike on September 7, 1993; and in a joint meeting of all Associations a resolution was passed resolving immediate enquiry into the charges of corruption against, and transfer of, respondent No. 3. They further resolved to continue to boycott Courts and go on indenfinite strike called the Taxation Bar Associations. The advocates made representation to the Governor on 4th September, 1993 and further representations to all concerned. It would appear that they had also approached the Advocate General to initiate contempt proceedings against the 3rd respondent and the Advocate General also appears to have issued show cause notice to the 3rd respondent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act. We are not concerned with the legality 100 or appropriateness of any of the said proceedings. Suffice it to state that when the indefinite strike evoked no response,