IMPORTANT POINT
The court emphasized that willful and deliberate defiance of the order is pivotal in adjudicating contempt proceedings, and found that there was no deliberate or intentional disobedience in this case.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Dr. L.P.Mishra, assisted by Sri Sharad Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioners, Sri Upendra Nath Mishra, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Neel Kamal Mishra, for opposite party no. 3 and Sri Ratnesh Chandra assisted by Sri Ishan Singh, for the Lucknow Development Authority.

2. Instant contempt petition is preferred for alleged non compliance of the Judgment and Order dated 19-08-1992 passed in Writ Petition No. 222(S/S) of 1992 connected with Writ Petition No. 6384 (S/S) of 1989.

3. Factual matrix of the case is that the petitioners were appointed as Junior Engineers on workcharge basis in the years 1984,1985 and 1987, in the Lucknow Development Authority, and in the year 1992, they approached this court by preferring several petitions namely, Writ Petition No. 222(S/S) of 1992 connected with Writ Petition No. 6384 (S/S) of 1989, and were heard together. The final Judgment and order was passed by this court on 19-08-1992, whereby these writ petitions were allowed, while directing the Lucknow Development Authority to pay minimum of the pay-scale to the petitioners as is being paid to the regularly appointed Junior Engineers, Clerks and Class-IVth employees, were getting at that point of time and as many as 7 directions were issued, but, so far as the last direction in the Judgment and Order dated 19-08-1992, which is allegedly not complied with, by the opposite parties, is to the effect that ‘to take step to obtain regularization of the services of those petitioners within nine months, if the posts are within the purview of Public Service Commission. If posts are not within the purview of Public Service Commission, the opposite parties will regularize the services of the petitioners within said period.’

4. Being aggrieved with the above said Judgment and Order dated 19-08-1992, the Lucknow Development Authority filed two Special Appeals namely; Special Appeal No. 35 of 1993 and the Special Appeal No. 39 of 1993. Since, the Judgment and Order dated 19-08-1992 was with respect to the Junior Engineers, Clerks and Class-IVth employees, whereas the Special Appeal No. 35 of 1993, particularly; challenging the Judgment and Order with respect to the Assistant Engineers and that was dismissed on 20-10-2003. The Special Appeal No. 39 of 1993; was also dismissed for non-prosecution on 20-12-2016. Later on, the order dated 20-12-2016 was recalled vide order dated 30-10-2017 though on 30-10-2017, on the request of the learned counsel for the appellant, the same was dismissed as being rendered infructuous but no objection was raised by the learned counsel for the petitioners /respondent, then.

5. Admitted fact in between the parties are that the services of the petitioners were regularized in the year 2003 and further, the special appeal, which was preferred by the Lucknow Development Authority, is dismissed as infructuous as no objection was raised by the learned counsel for the petitioners against the statement given by the learned counsel for the appellants/opposite parties. The fact remains that the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 853 of 1990 titled as ‘Shri Ram Kishan and Ors Vs Union of India & Others’ was filed by some of the employees of the Development Authority for regularization of their services directly before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, invoking powers under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, wherein, while passing the Judgment and order dated 21-02-1991 by the Hon’ble Apex Court, it was directed to the authority ‘to take steps through the State of Uttar Pradesh to obtain regularization of the petitioners as far as possible preferably within nine months from now so that by the end of the year the process of regularization may, as far as practicable be completed.’

6. Thereafter, the Apex Court clarified it’s order on 04-09-1991, while observing that ‘the question is one of recruitment into U.P. Development Centralised Service. For that purpose, we understand that there are a set of rules and recru