3 UT officers served notices for contempt of court

CHANDIGARH, January 15: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued contempt notices to three UT officers, M.R. Aggarwal, who has since bee...

CHANDIGARH, January 15: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued contempt notices to three UT officers, M.R. Aggarwal, who has since been repatriated to his parent state of Punjab, SDM Amar Nath and Enforcement Officer Harnek Singh, for forcibly evicting the petitioner Avtar Singh, from a government house, against the court orders. The notices were issued by Justice Sat Pal of the court.

The petitioner, Avtar Singh, had contended that he was in occupation of a government house allotted to him in Sector 20-B, for whose eviction proceedings were earlier initiated under the Public Premises Act.

Though the proceedings initiated were quashed by the District Judge, Chandigarh, in May 1993, and a direction was issued to the Estate Officer and the Secretary, House Allotment Committee, for initiating proceedings before the District Judge in accordance with law, the UT Estate authorities without reference to the District Judge initiated eviction proceedings.

Following this, the petitioner moved the high court, which held the proceedings as illegal, together with issuing directions for initiating proceedings before the District Judge, against which the UT Administration went in a Letters Patent Appeal, which was later dismissed by the High Court. The officers now face contempt of court.