Viswajeet Khanna And Ors vs Sukhwinder Singh And Ors

NON-REPORTABLE IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 15686 OF 2017 [@ SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) NO. 23123/2016]

VISWAJEET KHANNA AND ORS APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

SUKHWINDER SINGH AND ORS RESPONDENT(S)

WITH C.A. NO. 15687/2017 @ SLP(C) NO. 23750/2016

J U D G M E N T

KURIAN, J.

Leave granted.

2. The appellants are before us aggrieved by the

order dated 28.05.2016 passed in CACP No.14/2016 by

the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh.

3. The matter was before the Division Bench,

pursuant to the contempt proceedings initiated

against the appellants. In the nature of order we

propose to pass it is not necessary to go into the

factual matrix except to refer to last order passed

by this Court on 24.08.2017, which reads as follows:-

“Paragraph 37 of the impugned order reads as follows :-

Signature Not Verified

“The respondents have rightly approached the Contempt Court for Digitally signed by NARENDRA PRASAD Date: 2017.10.10 11:33:06 IST Reason: non-compliance of the orders passed by

1 the writ court on 28.05.2014. The State shall identify the forest land based on the Government records maintained as on 25.10.1980, the date from which the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 was enforced as expeditiously as possible. While undertaking such an exercise, the State shall not rely upon the satellite imagery that was taken on 17.05.1981 which is beyond the cut-off date fixed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. In other words, the satellite imagery taken on 17.05.1981 be eschewed from the purview of identification of the forest land.

The appellants shall not rake-up these issues time and again before the Contempt Court.”

We direct the State to identify the forest lands based on the Government records as on 25.10.1980 and submit a report to this Court positively within three weeks.

We direct the Chief Secretary to coordinate the preparation of the report. We make it clear that the Chief Secretary shall not delegate the preparation of the report to anybody else and make sure that the same is done under his supervision directly.

The stay on contempt proceedings shall continue until further orders.

Matters remain part-heard. List on 04.10.2017 as Part Heard.“

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4. The Chief Secretary has, accordingly, submitted a

detailed Report dated 13.09.2017 along with plans,

sketch etc. Having gone through the Report, Shri

V.K. Bali, learned senior counsel appearing for the

respondent(s), submits that now that a report has

been submitted by the Chief Secretary which,

according to the learned senior counsel, is wholly

faulty, the same will have to be gone into either by

this Court or by the High Court.

5. Having regard to the jurisdiction invoked before

this Court, we are of the view that it is only

appropriate that the liberty is granted to the

respondents to challenge the same before the High

Court in an appropriate proceeding.

6. The Report having been submitted by the Chief

Secretary and since the same is sought to be

challenged on merits, we do not find any need for

continuing the contempt proceedings initiated against

the appellants. Therefore, we set aside the

proceedings initiated against the appellants under

the contempt jurisdiction exercised by the High

Court.

7. In the event of the respondents approaching the

High Court, we request the Court to dispose of the

matters expeditiously.

8. In view of the above, the appeals are disposed

of.

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9. Pending applications, if any, shall stand disposed of.

10. There shall be no orders as to costs.

.......................J. [KURIAN JOSEPH]

.......................J. [R. BANUMATHI] NEW DELHI;

OCTOBER 05, 2017.

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