Wilful disobedience of a court order, as defined under Section 2(b) of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971, requires intentional, deliberate, or purposeful disobedience.

B.L.Yadav, J.

1. This is an application under Article 215 of the Constitution of India read with Sec. 12 of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971 (compendiously the Act). The prayer in the application is that Shri Rajani Ranjan Prasad, District Magistrate, Katihar (Respondent No. 2) and Shri Akshaya Kant Mishra, District Panchayat Officer, Katihar (Respondent No. 3) be punished for having deliberately and wilfully disobeyed the order of this Court dated 10th December, 1993 passed in C.W.J.C. No. 7513 of 1993.

2. The portrayal of the essential facts are that the applicants were appointed as Dalpatis in their respective Gram Panchayats by the Executive Committee of the Gram Panchayat and their appointments were approved by the District Panchayat Officer, Katihar by exercising his power under Rule 4(1) of the Bihar Panchayat Village Welfare Force Rules, 1949. The applicants were sent for training in Central Training Institute at Ranchi and completed the same and were awarded certificates. The State Government (Respondent No. 1) decided by order dated 24.6.1989 to appoint Dalpatis, on the post of Panchayat Sewak provided a Dalpati was trained matriculate and was within the age limit of 40 years and 43 years for reserved categories. For this purpose a gradation list was prepared with a view to decide seniority of the Dalpatis in the district. The District Panchayat Officer also gave his approval. The District Selection Committee of the Panchayat Sewak was constituted in view of the direction contained in Memo No. 33 dated 13th March, 1992 and it held meeting on 20.10.1992 and selected the applicants and some other candidates to the post of Panchayat Sewak. The candidates selected by the said Committee for the appointment to the post of Panchayat Sewak were already appointed after following the procedure prescribed including the roaster. The District Panchayat Officer was directed by order dated 29.12.1992 to send the applicants in the Panchayat Sewak Institute, Jasidih-Deoghar in pursuance of the meeting of the District Selection Committee of the Panchayat Sewak held on 20.10.1992. In view of this direction and order the applicants joined the Panchayat Sewak Institute, Jasidih-Deoghar on 5.1.1993 and continued to work there satisfactorily till 3.4.1993. An examination was held in the Training Institute and the applicants were successful in that examination and a certificate was awarded to the applicants by the Principal of the Institute on 30.4.1993.

3. Thereafter the applicants joined before the Panchayat Office on 6.4.1993 and submitted their certificates of training but were not posted anywhere and they were not posted anywhere and they were awaiting for their postings. The District Magistrate (Respondent No. 2) vide Memo No. 445 dated 14.6.1993 appointed the applicants and two others on the post of Panchayat Sewak in different blocks in the District Panchayat Office, Katihar and they continued to serve there to the full satisfaction of authorities concerned and they (except applicant No.l) were paid salary for the month of June, 1993. All of a sudden the Respondent No. 2 passed an order exercising the power of superintendence without any notice or information to the applicants that their posting be cancelled. The order was later on modified that only Ram Nath Paswan and Mansoor Alam who were similarly situate, would continue on their posts and the applicants would not continue on the post of Panchayat Sewak. The District Panchayat Officer by his order dated 23.8.93 directed the recovery of the amount of salary paid to the applicants.

4. The applicants thereafter preferred C.W.J.C. No. 7513 of 1993 before this Court, which was disposed of by a Division Bench of this Court, by order dated 10.12.1993 (Annexure-1 to this application). It was directed that the District Magistrate(Respondent No. 2 ) would decide and pass an appropriate order, within six weeks, in the matter of posting of the applicants and for the payment of their