IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision : 20.01.2026 VIKASH SHARMA .... Petitioner VERSUS RAJIV RATTAN, IAS AND ORS .... Respondents CORAM : HON’BLE MRS. JUSTICE ALKA SARIN Present : Mr. Veeraj Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. S.K. Panwar, Addl. AG Haryana for the respondents.

ALKA SARIN, J. (ORAL)

1. The present petition has been filed under Sections 10 and 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 for initiating contempt proceedings against the respondents for deliberately, intentionally and willfully disobeying the order dated 08.01.2024 passed by this Court in CWP-5158-2023. The order dated 08.01.2024 reads as under :

‘Challenge in the present petition is to the order dated 29.09.2022 (Annexure P-15) whereby the representation submitted by the petitioner for issuance of Arms Licence has been rejected.

A written statement has been filed on behalf of the respondents, wherein, it has been averred that the petitioner has an alternative remedy of preferring an appeal under Section 18 of the Arms Act, 1959 read with Rule 105 of Arms Rules-2016 before the Divisional Commissioner.

Counsel for the petitioner does not dispute the same.

Accordingly, the present petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to prefer an appeal before the Appellate Authority. In the event of the petitioner preferring an appeal within a period of four weeks from today, the Appellate Authority shall consider and decide the same at the earliest and preferably within a period of six months thereafter by granting an opportunity of hearing.

Petition stands disposed of accordingly.’

2. The appeal filed by the petitioner herein was decided by the Divisional Commissioner, Karnal Division, Karnal vide order dated 08.01.2025 which has been appended with the present petition as Annexure P-3. Vide the said order (Annexure P-3), the matter has been remanded back to the District Magistrate, Karnal with the direction to reconsider the case of the petitioner after affording an opportunity of hearing to him.

3. Now the present contempt petition has been filed alleging that the order dated 08.01.2025 (Annexure P-3) is in clear violation of the order dated 08.01.2024 passed by this Court. There is no explanation forthcoming as to why, if the petitioner felt that the order dated 08.01.2025 (Annexure P- 3) was in clear violation of the order passed by this Court, he did not approach the Court earlier. Having sat quiet for a year, the present contempt petition has now been filed. In any case, there is no contempt made out as the only direction passed by this Court in CWP-5158-2023 vide order dated 08.01.2024 was to decide the appeal. This Court, in contempt jurisdiction, cannot go into the merits or demerits of the order passed.

4. In view of the above, no ground is made out to entertain the present contempt petition and the same is accordingly dismissed with ₹20,000 as costs to be deposited with the Punjab and Haryana High Court Employees Welfare Association, Account No.37167209613, IFSC Code SBIN0050306, State Bank of India, High Court Branch, Chandigarh. Pending applications, if any, also stand disposed off.

20.01.2026 (ALKA SARIN)

Aman Jain JUDGE NOTE: Whether speaking/non-speaking: Speaking Whether reportable: Yes/No