The High Court has the power to initiate contempt proceedings on its own motion without the consent of the Advocate General under Section 15(1) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and the High Court's power to punish for contempt under Article 215 of the Constitution of India is not affected by the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.

V.K.Bali, J.

1. Varinder Kumar and his father-in-law Raw Sarup Sethi as also Mr. D.D. Sharma Advocate of this Court who represented the first two are before us as contemners by virtue of taking cognizance of Contempt against them under Section 18 of the Contempt of Courts Act" 1971 while deciding Criminal Miscellaneous No. 197 of 1989 in: Criminal Writ Petition No. 2056 of 1988 by S.S. Grewal, J. Before, however, finding with regard to their guilt or innocence is returned, it shall be useful to give a brief resume of facts.

2. Varinder Kumar filed Criminal Writ Petition No. 1804 of 19.88 in .this Court through his lawyer Shri D.D. Sharma Advocate. The prayer was to release him on emergency parole for a period" of four weeks commencing with effect from October 12, 1981. The contents of aforesaid Criminal Writ Petition would go to show that Varinder Kumar prayed for his release on emergency parole for a period of four weeks on the ground that he was to appear in M.A. Part I (Economics) examination. which was to be held by the Punjabi University from October, 1988 under roll cumber which he had received on October 1, 1988. He prayed for parole by stating that in a case under Section 362 read with Section 34 IPC in which he was arrested, he was undergoing. imprisonment in Central Jail, Bhatinda. With a view to strengthen his case for release on parole he even annexed with the aforesaid Writ Petition a copy of date sheet and roll number stated to have been issued by the Punjabi University. The facts detailed above would pre suppose that the petitioner was tried in a case under Section 302 read read with Section 34 Indian Penal Code and after trial was convicted. The Criminal Writ Petition came up for hearing before A.P. Chowdhri, J. on October 11, 1988 and it is obvious that on the sole ground that Varinder Kumar was to appear in M.A. Part I (Economcs) examination he was granted parole under the provisions of Punjab Good Conduct Prisoner (Temporary Release) Act, 1962 for a period of four weeks. Varinder Kumar filed yet another petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal, Procedure vide which he sought for correction in the order dated October, 11, 1988 in Writ Petition No. 1804 of 1988 and prayed that as a matter of fact he was undertial prisoner facing trial in a case under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC before Sessions Judge, Bhatinda and, therefore, instead of parole, he should be released on interim bail. The above mentioned request was, a also allowed vide order dated October 14, 1988. Yet another C.W.P. No. 2056 of 1988 was filed by Ram Sarup Sethi, father-in-law of Varinder Kumar wherein extension of interim bail granted to him vide order dated October 14, 1988 was prayed for a period of four weeks. The ground for seeking extension this time was that the house of Varinder Kumar had fallen due to floods which requied re-construction so as to provide shelter to his parents. It was further pleaded in the aforesaid Criminal Writ Petition that there was no other adult male member in his family who could do the job which was very emergent. This time too Mr. D.D. Sharma was engaged to plead the cause of Ram Sarup Sethi, With a view to strengthen the grant of prayer, the resolution of Municipal Committee Bhatinda City verifying that house of Varinder Kumar had actually fallen down and required extensive repars was made part of the record. The said resolution was signed by two ex-Municipal Commissioners. On the representation of aforesaid facts, Ram Sarup Sethi was able to obtain an order of extension of, interim bail already granted to Narinder Kumar vide orders dated November 21, 1988 passed by A.P. Chowdhri, J. Vide yet another order dated December 22, 1992 passed by S.D. Bajaj, J. Varinder Kumar was able to, obtain parole for the period, December 25, 1988 to January 7, 1989. When all these facts came to notice of Rakesh Kumar complainant in a case under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC against Varindar Ku