Wilful disobedience is essential to establish contempt of court; mere delays in compliance do not qualify as contempt, especially in the context of fulfilling welfare obligations under the National Food Security Act.

JUDGMENT

Satish Chandra Sharma, C.J.

1. The present Contempt Petition is arising out of an interlocutory order dated 01.09.2017 passed in W.P.(C)No. 2161/2017 titled as Delhi Rozi-Roti Adhikar Abhiyan Vs. Union of India and Ors.

2. The Contempt Petition has been filed under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 by the Petitioner alleging willful non-compliance of Order dated 01.09.2017 of this Court. It is stated that vide Order dated 01.09.2017, Respondent No. 2, Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) had been directed to place a status report before this Court within 6 weeks on the following issues - (1) Steps taken by Respondent No. 2 for examining the Model Rules suggested by the Government of India under the National Food Security Act, 2013 ("NFSA") (2) Formation of a grievance redressal mechanism as envisaged under Sections 14-18 of the NFSA (3) Steps taken for providing a periodical social audit of fair price shops by a local authority or any other authority/body authorized by the State Government as envisaged under Section 28 of the NFSA. Subsequently, this Court vide Orders in the Writ had requested the Respondent/GNCTD to comply with the aforesaid Order dated 01.09.2017.

3. The undisputed facts of the Writ reveal that it was filed by the Petitioner herein for quashing the notification dated 08.02.2017 issued by GNCTD and declaring it as ultra vires. The Petitioner had further prayed to this Court for a writ of mandamus to adhere to various interim orders passed by the Apex Court in W.P (C) 494/2012, titled as K.S. Puttuswamy (Retd.) & Anr. v. Union of India & Anr or any other direction/order directing the Respondent No. 2 to disburse food grains to the beneficiaries eligible under NFSA without requiring the production of Aadhar or undergoing its authentication. Vide the aforesaid notification, GNCTD had made the production/proof of enrolment into Aadhar mandatory for accessing subsidized food grains under the Targeted Public Distribution Scheme ("TPDS") as envisaged in the NFSA. The reliefs of the main Writ Petition which was filed in public interest are reproduced hereunder-

"i. Any writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari and/or any other writ, order or direction quashing the notification issued by Respondent No. 1dated 08.02.2017.

ii. Any writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus and/or any other writ, order or direction directing the Respondents to adhere to the orders dated 23.09.2013; 11.08.2015; 15.10.2015 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in batch of writ petitions led by W.P. (Civil) No. 494 of 2012, order dated24.03.2014 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP (Crl) No. 2524 of 2014 and order dated28.10.2016 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court inbatch of writ petitions led by W.P. (Civil) No.797 of2016.

iii. Any writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus and/or any other writ, order or direction directing the Respondent No.2 to disburse subsidised food grains to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act, 2013 without requiring the production of Aadhaar card or undergoing the Aadhaar authentication as a precondition to avail food grain under Public Distribution System Scheme."

4. At the relevant point in time when the Contempt Petition was filed, the m