Point of law; Powers of the High Courts to punish for contempt including the powers to punish for contempt of itself flow from Article 215 of the Constitution of India. Section 10 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 empowers the High Courts to punish contempt of its subordinate courts

JUDGMENT :

ABDUL MOIN, J.

1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri. H.K. Bhatt, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel.

2. The present contempt petition has been filed under Section 10 read with Section 12 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act 1971’) praying for initiation of contempt proceedings for the non compliance of the orders dated 13.12.2017 and 11.02.2020 passed by Board of Revenue, Lucknow in Revision No. 2060 of 2017 (Safdar Husain vs. Atahar Husain and Others), under Section 209 of Land Revenue Act, 1901 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act 1901’).

3. It is contended that the Board of Revenue had passed orders of status quo which have been violated by the respondent herein and thus, it is prayed that the contempt proceedings be initiated against the respondent.

4. A question before this Court would be as to whether the present contempt petition filed under Section 10 of the Act, 1971 praying for initiation of contempt proceedings against an order passed by the Board of Revenue would be maintainable. for deciding this question, the Court has taken the assistance of Sri. H.K. Bhatt, learned Additional Chief Standing counsel.

5. The Apex Court in the case of E. Bapanaiah vs. K.S. Raju, (2015) 1 SCC 451, has held as under:

“25. Powers of the High Courts to punish for contempt including the powers to punish for contempt of itself flow from Article 215 of the Constitution of India. Section 10 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 empowers the High Courts to punish contempt of its subordinate courts which reads as under:

“10. Power of High Court to punish contempt of subordinate courts - Every High Court shall have and exercise the same jurisdiction, powers and authority, in accordance with the same procedure and practice, in respect of contempt of courts subordinate to it as it has and exercises in respect of contempt of itself:

Provided that no High Court shall take cognizance of a contempt alleged to have been committed in respect of a court subordinate to it where such contempt is an offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).

27. The present case relates to a civil contempt wherein an undertaking given to Company Law Board is breached. Normally, the general provisions made under the Contempt of Courts Act are not invoked by the High Courts for forcing a party to obey orders passed by its subordinate courts for the simple reason that there are provisions contained in Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 to get executed its orders and decrees. It is settled principle of law that where there are special law and general law, the provisions of special law would prevail over general law. As such, in normal circumstances a decree holder cannot take recourse of Contempt of Courts Act else it is sure to throw open a floodgate of litigation under contempt jurisdiction. It is not the object of the Contempt of Courts Act to make decree holders rush to the High Courts simply for the reason that the decree passed by the subordinate court is not obeyed.”

6. From the perusal of the aforesaid judgment in the case of K.S. Raju (Supra), it is apparent that the power exercised by the High Court under Section 10 of the Act, 1971 can be exercised where there is no provision for execution or compliance of such orders meaning thereby that where there is an effective remedy for enforcing the order of court below, then the High Court would be justified in declining to entertain the contempt petition.

7. Being armed with the aforesaid proposition of law, the Court now sets out to see whether there is a remedy available to the petitioner of having the orders passed by the Board of Revenue complied with?

8. The orders of which contempt is alleged, have been passed by the Board of Revenue on a revision filed by the petitioner under Section 209 of the Act, 1901.

9. With the promulgation of the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as “Code, 2006”) in terms of Section 230 of the Code, 2006, the ena