Judicial orders must be complied with promptly by government departments to maintain the rule of law; failure to comply may constitute contempt, allowing courts to enforce compliance through consequential orders.

JUDGMENT

Najmi Waziri, J. This contempt petition has been filed by the petitioner under Sections 11 and 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 read with Article 215 of the Constitution of India, 1949, seeking, inter alia, the following reliefs:-

"(i) Initiate contempt proceedings against the alleged contemnor for willfully and deliberately disobeying the judgment and Order dated 06.01.2021 of this Hon'ble Court passed in the W.P.(C) No.10874 of 2020 and further direct the Respondent to pass a fresh order in compliance of the said Order;"

2. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the order dated 06.01.2021 passed by the Division Bench in W.P.(C) No. 10874/2020 leaves no scope for the State of West Bengal to consider the matter on merits but to issue a release order in view of the two orders as mentioned by the Division Bench in its aforesaid order, which is reproduced as under:

"...Present writ petition has been filed with the following prayer:

"1. Allow the present Petition and pass an appropriate writ, order or direction to set aside the impugned Order dated 01.12.2020 passed by the Ld. Central Administrative, Principal bench, New Delhi in MA/100/2252/2020;

2. Consequently, direct that the prayer (s) made in the Original Application of the Petitioner as filed before the Ld. CAT, Principal bench, New Delhi be allowed;

3. Consequently, direct the Respondent no. 1 to grant No objection/approval to the Petitioner for transfer of her cadre from West Bengal cadre to AGMUT Cadre and accordingly direct for passing of relieving orders in favour of the petitioner in a time bound manner;

4. Any other relief which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit in the interest of justice."

2. However, after some arguments, learned counsel for petitioner confines his prayer to prayer (ii) made in the OA filed along with M.A.No. 100/2252/2020. The said prayer clause is reproduced hereinbelow:-

(ii.) In the alternative, issue an appropriate order directing the Respondent no. 2 to act on the Application of the Applicant dated 10.08.2020 (Annexure A-18) and grant consent/letter of No objection and consequential relieving order for the Transfer of cadre of the Applicant from West Bengal cadre to AGMUT Cadre;

3. Issue notice.

4. Mr. Vijay Joshi, Advocate accepts notice on behalf of respondent No. 1 and Ms. Madhumita Bhattarcharjee, Advocate accepts notice on behalf of respondent No. 2.

5. They state that in view of the limited prayer now sought before this Court, they do not wish to file any counter affidavit.

6. It is pertinent to mention that the Tribunal by way of the impugned order has dismissed the petitioner's O.A. on the ground of delay as far as challenge to order dated 25th May, 2016 of the respondent No.2 is concerned. However, the petitioner had been given liberty to pursue her fresh application seeking transfer of the cadre.

7. Keeping in view the aforesaid, the present writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondent No. 2 to decide the petitioner's second representation dated 10th August, 2020 within eight weeks in accordance with the order dated 06th November, 2019 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Principal Bench in O.A.3863/2018 as well as order dated 04th December, 2020 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Principal Bench in O.A. No.3579/2019 and the judgment and order dated 03rd February, 2020 passed by this Court in W.P.(C) No. 13444/2020.

8. It is clarified that the dismissal of the petitio