Hon’ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.—This Criminal Contempt has been registered pursuant to proceedings of criminal contempt initiated by writ Court in Writ Petition No. 16724 of 2002 (Pradeep Kumar Arora and another v. State of U.P. and others) wherein the Court while deciding the matter finally, formed an opinion that two petitioners are guilty of concealment of material facts from Court and have obtained interim order by such concealment, therefore, are prima facie guilty of criminal contempt. The Court formulated following charge against both the petitioners (hereinafter referred to as “Contemnors”) in its judgment dated 2.2.2005 whereby writ petition was finally decided and dismissed.

“That you, Pradeep Kumar Arora and Dr. Kailash Nath Gupta filed the writ petition giving an impression that there was no requirement of any specialisation in a particular subject while making the appointment in Education Department; you concealed, knowingly and purposely, the fact that none of you had joined in the College of your placement by the Director of Higher Education nor you have stated that you had approached the Committee of Management of the respective institutions where you had been given the placement by the Director of Higher Education and the Committee of Management did not issue the appointment letters; you did not disclose that your appointment itself came to an end by operation of law as well as in terms of your placement order as you failed to join the respective College of your placement within the stipulated period; and by suppressing these facts, you succeeded in obtaining interim order; though petitioner No. 1 joined but petitioner No. 2 did not join at the College in Bijnor in view of the interim order of this Court dated 24.4.2002, thus, played fraud upon the Court in order to get the placement of petitioner No. 1 in N.A.S. College, Meerut as the petitioner No. 2 is still working in Azamgarh.”

2. Since criminal contempt proceedings are to be heard by a Bench assigned with such jurisdiction by Hon’ble The Chief Justice, therefore, it was registered separately as Criminal Contempt No. 1 of 2005 and proceeded accordingly. Presently, pursuant to Hon’ble Chief Justice’s nomination vide order dated 26.3.2015, it has come-up before this Court.

3. The facts in brief, to understand as to what was concealment on the part of contemnors, which has constituted a ‘criminal contempt’, it would be appropriate to have a bird eye view of facts involved in writ petition. No. 16724 of 2002.

4. U.P. Higher Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “Commission”) issued an Advertisement No. 29 for making recruitment against vacancies of ‘Lecturers’ in higher education colleges in State of U.P. pursuant to provisions of U.P. Higher Education Service Commission Act, 1980 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act, 1980”) read with U.P. Higher Education Service Commission Rules, 1981 (hereinafter referred to as the “Rules, 1981”) and U.P. Higher Education Services Commission (Procedure for Selection of Teachers) Regulations, 1983 (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulation, 1983”).

5. The two petitioners were selected in the aforesaid recruitment. The Commission sent a List dated 7.7.2001, containing names of 121 successful candidates, selected by Commission for the post of Lecturers in B.Ed. Classes in various Higher Education Colleges. Contemnor No. 1-Pradeep Kumar Arora, was allotted vacancy of ‘Lecturer’ in Vardhman College, Bijnor while contemnor No. 2-Dr. Kailash Nath Gupta, was allocated vacancy of Lecture in Nanakchand Anglo Sanskrit College, Meerut (hereinafter referred to as “N.A.S. College, Meerut). Both these contemnors, instead of joining at their respective colleges, moved application before Director, Higher Education, requesting for interchange of their placement. The Director, instead of acceeding to their request, proceeded to recommend one Harender Kumar, another selected candidate, to be appointed at N.A.S. College, Meeru