JUDGMENT

Altamas Kabir,J.

1. These appeals by way of special leave are directed against the judgment and order dated 19th January, 2001, passed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Contempt Application No. 1563 of 1999 and Contempt Case No.1819 of 1999, holding that deliberate and wilful acts of disobedience of the orders passed by the High Court, by the Mandal Revenue Officer and also by the other superior authorities had been amply proved and as such they had committed contempt of Court. The High Court then went on to observe as follows:-

"Viewed from any angle the respondents clearly disobeyed the orders of this Court and they committed contempt of Court. It is no doubt true that construction over the land in question has been taken place. But, what is the relief that has to be granted to the petitioner? No purpose would be served to the petitioner if there is a direction to handover vacant possession of the property of the petitioner. The order of demolition of the buildings so constructed over the land in question and restituting the said land to the petitioner would cause great hardships to the respondents.

To put an end to the litigation once for all and since the respondents have already made constructions over the land in question by flouting the orders passed by this Court and no purpose will be served if the respondents are directed to be punished as some of them as on today either transferred or retired from service, we feel it appropriate to direct the respondent-authorities to pay compensation to the petitioner in the contempt case at the rate of Rs.5,000/- per sq. yard as valued by the State itself in the application filed U/s.8 of the A.P. Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act and numbered as L.G.C. No. 25 of 2000 or any other reasonable amount in lieu of directing the respondents to redeliver possession of the land in question to the petitioner, in case the proceedings in L.G.C. No. 25 of 2000 go in favour of the petitioner. The question of maintainability, jurisdiction, propriety or competency to continue the case in L.G.C. No. 25 of 2000 in view of the earlier proceedings and observations made therein including the directions to institute a civil suit to adjudicate the title to the property is kept open to be considered by the Special Court. However, implementation of this order is stayed for a period of six weeks from today.

Subject to the observations indicated above, the contempt case and the contempt applications are closed. There shall be no order as to costs."

2. It is clear from the aforesaid order that instead of directing demolition of the construction already made and/or punishing the contemnors, the High Court felt it more appropriate to pass an equitable order directing payment of compensation to the petitioner in the Contempt Case at the rate of Rs.5,000/- per sq. yard as valued by the State itself in an application filed under Section 8 of the Andhra Pradesh Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, against the predecessor-in-interest of the respondent herein. The said direction was, however, given along with a rider that such compensation would be paid only in the event the land grabbing case was dismissed in favour of the predecessor-in-interest of the respondent herein. Certain other directions were also given regarding the question of maintainability, jurisdiction, propriety or competence of the petitioners in the land grabbing case to continue the same in view of earlier directions given by the High Court, including the direction to institute a civil suit to adjudicate the title to the property. The implementation of the order was stayed for a period of six weeks from the date of the order presumably with the intention of allowing the parties to contest the order before a higher forum.

3. It is the said order of the High Court which is the subject matter of challenge in these appeals.

4. While Civil Appeal Nos.2200-2201 of 2001 have been filed by the officials found by the High Court to have committed