Contempt of Court arises when a party fails to comply with court orders, violating the principles of natural justice and due process.

ORDER :

GANNAMANENI RAMAKRISHNA PRASAD, J.

Heard Sri N. Madhava Rao, learned Counsel for the Petitioners and Sri M. Sudheer, learned Counsel for the sole Respondent/Contemnor.

2. The present Contempt Case is filed by two Writ Petitioners (Writ Petitioner Nos.1 & 4) out of the four Writ Petitioners complaining of violation of the Order of this Court dated 08.03.2018 in W.P.No.7251 of 2018.

Factual background

3. Factual background emanating from the Writ Petition as well as present Contempt Case is that the Panchayat Secretary of Brahmadevam Gram Panchayat, Nellore District (Respondent No.5 in the Writ Petition), who has been arrayed as sole Respondent in the present Contempt Case, had issued Proceeding bearing Rc.No./Court Cases/2016 dated 26.02.2018, directing the four Writ Petitioners to remove the alleged encroachments purporting to act as per the Order of this Court dated 05.12.2017 in W.P.No.40019 of 2017; that the Writ Petitioners contended that the Writ Petitioner No.4 had filed O.S.No.383 of 2017 against one Sri M. Chenchaiah before the Principal Civil Judge (Junior Division), Nellore seeking Permanent Injunction against the Panchayat Secretary as well as Sri M. Chenchaiah (Respondent Nos.5 & 6 in the Writ Petition); that the Writ Petitioner No.4 had also filed I.A.No.399 of 2017 in O.S.No.383 of 2017, wherein the Principal Civil Judge (Junior Division), Nellore was pleased to pass an Interim Order of Status-quo to be maintained on 09.08.2017 and the same was extended from time to time; therefore, the Interim Order of Status-quo in I.A.No.399 of 2017 in O.S.No.383 of 2017 is still subsisting and operating against the Panchayat Secretary (Respondent No.5) and Unofficial Respondent No.6 namely Sri M. Chenchaiah; that the Unofficial Respondent No.6 in the Writ Petition secured an ex-parte Order in W.P.No.40019 of 2017 on 05.12.2017, behind their back without impleading the Writ Petitioners, which is a non-specific direction against the Official Respondents to consider his Representation dated 25.01.2016 within a period of three months; that the said Representation submitted by the Unofficial Respondent No.6 (Sri Chenchaiah) is for removal of encroachments in the Panchayat land in R.S.No.665; and that the Official Respondent No.5 had colluded with Unofficial Respondent No.6 and got issued the Proceeding on 26.02.2018 for evicting the Writ Petitioners herein, which is the subject matter of challenge in W.P.No.7251 of 2018.

4. The facts on record would further indicate that the above averments were specifically pleaded by the Writ Petitioners in Para Nos.5 & 6 of the Affidavit filed in support of Writ Petition in W.P.No.7251 of 2018, which are usefully extracted hereunder:

"5. I further submit that, the 6^th respondent herein is a retired Deputy Executive Engineer in Irrigation department in Nellore District, and he is a native of our Village and he and his wife namely Sankaramma have land behind our Houses, nearly Ac.1-75 cents and he wants to convert the same into house sites. There is passage in between the houses of 3^rd and 4^th petitioners, in a width of 6 feet, which is being used by 6^th respondent, since long time as a ingress and egress. With a view to convent his agricultural land into house sites, the 6^th respondent asked the petitioners 3 and 4 to leave 1 Ankanam each by removing part of their houses for widening the existing passage and for which he offered Rs.50,000/- each. I further submit that, the petitioners 3 and 4 rejected the offer made by the 6^th respondent. Thereafter the 6^th r