The absence of intentional violation of a court order nullified contempt proceedings, allowing petitioner's claims to be raised in a pending writ petition.

JUDGMENT

This contempt case is filed alleging violation of the interim order dated 25.07.2025 in W.P(C) No.27381/2025.

2. The respondents 2 and 3 have filed their counter affidavits. It would be better to extract the relevant portion of the counter affidavit filed by 2nd respondent :

“5. On 26.07.2025 at 3.56 PM the petitioner has sent the copy of the above interim order of this Honourable Court through whatsapp to my personal phone number. I was on field duty on 26.07.2025 which was a Saturday. On seeing the message I was under the impression that it is already communicated to the office of the Assistant Executive Engineer, Local Self Government Department, Kasaragod. On 28.07.2025 which was a Monday I was on field duty. While on fieId duty I noticed that the tender was opened on 28.07.2025 afternoon. Immediately I contacted the 3rd respondent and informed her of the interim order of this Honourable court. There upon no further actions were taken upon the same. It is submitted that on becoming aware of the interim order of this Honourable Court the technical evaluation which should be done on the same day itself was not done. The matter was not also placed before the Block Panchayath committee for its approval. The Financial evaluation and Award of contract are also not done. It is submitted that the tender was opened for the reason that the Assistant Executive Engineer being unaware of the interim order of this Honourable Court authorized the overseer to open the tender. It is submitted that the allegation in the above Contempt of Court Case that the order was communicated to me through e-mail is not correct and I did not notice any such e-mail. The e-mail communicating the interim order of this Honourable Court was sent from office of the Advocate General to the Block Panchayath on 0L.O8.2O25. The allegation to the contrary in the above Contempt of Court Case is not true.

6. It is submitted that I did not intentionally violate the interim order of this Honourable Court and I have all true respects for the orders of this Honourable Court. The tender happened to be opened only for the reasons as above. I tender my unconditional apology for the same. It is submitted that the office of the Kasaragod Block Panchayath is very busy as more than 300 projects per year are being implemented through the Kasaragod Block Panchayath which makes the work load very heavy. Therefore by accepting my explanation as above the above Contempt of Court Case may be closed.”

It would be better to extract the relevant portion of the counter affidavit filed by 3rd respondent also:

“5. On 26.07.2025 at 3.56 PM the petitioner has sent the copy of the above interim order of this Honourable Court through whatsapp to my personal phone number. 26.07.2025 was a Saturday. I did not notice the above message. Therefore the tender was opened on 28.07 .2025 which was a Monday. Immediately the 2nd respondent herein contacted me over phone and informed me of the interim order of this Honourable Court. Thereafter I did not take any further action on the same. It is submitted that on becoming aware of the interim order of this Honourable Court the technical evaluation which should be done on the same day itself was not done. The matter was not also placed before the Block Panchayath committee for its approval. The Financial evaluation and Award of contract are also not done. It is submitted that the allegation in the above Contempt of Court Case that the order was communicated to me through e-mail is not correct and I did not notice any such e-mail. The interim order of this Honourable Court is also not brought to my notice otherwise. The e-mail communicating the interim order of this Honourable Court was sent from office of the Advocate General on 01.08.2O25. The allegation to the contrary in the above writ petition is not true.

6. It is submit