A
Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala comprising of Acting Chief Justice
Ashok Bhushan and Justice AM Shaffique declined to exercise jurisdiction in a
contempt of court case filed by one Sreenivas P of Karazhma in Mavelikkara as
the same was barred by limitation.
In
the petition filed originally before the court in 2009, Sreenivas, who is a
devotee of the temple, had sought appointment of a permanent priest so as to
dispose with the practice of engaging substitute priests. A Division Bench of
the Court vide its judgment dated 03.12.2009 had asked the Travancore Devaswom
Board (TDB) to expedite the appointment of priests on a permanent basis.
Though
the petitioner's case was that no permanent priests had been appointed in the
past three years despite the positive direction of the High Court in its
judgment dated 03.12.2009, he approached the Court alleging non-compliance by
the TDB with the said judgment of the Court, only on 19.01.2015.
Declining
to entertain the contempt case, the Bench held, "The direction was issued
on 3.12.2009. This contempt case has been filed only on 19.1.2015. Section 21
of the Contempt of Court Act prohibits initiation of any proceedings after
lapse of one year. The non-compliance of direction issued in 2009 cannot be entertained
in this application filed in 2015."
Section
20 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 which prescribes a period of limitation for bringing actions for contempt of Court, says :
"No court shall initiate any
proceedings if contempt, either on its own motion or otherwise, after the
expiry of a period of one year from the date on which the contempt is alleged
to have been committed."
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