l Appeal No 1972 of 1983 From the Judgment and Order dated 221183 of the Calcutta High Court in Civil Rule No 10933 W of 1983 and order issuing contempt notice dated 3284 being Civil Rule No 571 W of 1984
Milon K Banerjee Additional Solicitor General AK Ganguli and RN Poddar for the appellants
Soli J Sorabjee Mrs Manik Karanjawala Ratan Karanjawala Kuldeep Pablay Sumit Kachawha and Dr Roxana Swamy for the respondents
ASubba Rao for STC
The Order of the Court was delivered by CHINNAPPA REDDY J
We grant special leave and proceed to dispose of the appeal
MS Oswal Woollen Mills Limited having its registered office at Ludhiana in the State of Punjab and a branch office at Calcutta and Narayan Das Jain Secretary of the Company have filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court seeking various reliefs against the Union of India through the Secretary Ministry of Commerce New Delhi the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports New Delhi the Deputy Chief Controller of Imports and Exports Amritsar the Collector of Customs Calcutta and the State Trading Corporation of India New Delhi
The primary prayer in the writ petition is to prevent or to quash an apprehended or purported action under clause 8 B of the Import Control Order
All the other reliefs sought in the writ petition revolve round the principal relief regarding clause 8 B of the Import Control Order
The other prayers are either ancillary or incidental to the principal prayer or are of an interlocutory character
Having regard to the fact that the registered office of the company is at Ludhiana and the principal respondents against whom the primary relief is sought are at New Delhi one would have expected the writ petition to be filed either in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana or in the Delhi High Court
The writ petitioners however have chosen the Calcutta High Court as the forum perhaps because one of the interlocutory reliefs which is sought is in respect of a consignment of beef tallow which has arrived at the 345 Calcutta Port
An inevitable result of the filing of writ petitions elsewhere than at the place where the concerned offices and the relevant records are located is to delay prompt return and contests We do not desire to probe further into the question whether the writ petition was filed by design or accident in the Calcutta High Court when the office of the Company is in the State of Punjab and all the principal respondents are in Delhi
But we do feel disturbed that such writ petitions are often deliberately filed in distant High Courts as part of a manoeuvre in a legal battle so as to render it difficult for the officials at Delhi to move applications to vacate stay where it becomes necessary to file such applications
More about this later
It appears that an order under clause 8 B of the Import Control Order had been made against the company on November 9 1983 but the writ petition was filed as if the order was in the offing and might be made at any time
The writ petition was apparently filed in professed or real ignorance of the order made under clause 8 B of the Import Control Order
On November 22 1983 a learned single judge of the Calcutta High Court issued a rule Nisi and granted an interim order in the following terms
There will be an interim order of stayinjunction in terms of prayers j k I and n of the writ petition till the disposal of the rule
Liberty is given to the respondents to apply for vacation or variation
The rule was made returnable on January 31 1984
Prayers jkI and n of the petition were for the grant of J Injuction restraining the respondents their servants andor agents from filing any criminal complaint against the petitioners or any of its director or employees from initiating any departmental proceedings under the Import and Export Control Act 1947 and Import Control Order 1955 against the petitioners or any of its Directors of Employees till the disposal of the Rule k Injuction restraining the respondents from issuing an order of abeyance under clause 8 B of the Import Control 346 Order 1955 andor from taking any action under such order of abeyance till the disposal of the rule 1 Mandatory order directing the respondent No5 Collector of Customs to permit the petitioners to re export the consignment of inedible Beef Tallow in terms of ITG Public Notice No37 of 1983 dated 1983 with respect to the consignment weighing 456316 MT which is lying at Calcutta under section 49 of the Customs Act n An order that pending the hearing and final disposal of this writ petition the petitioners be permitted to re ship andor re export the consignment of 456216 MT of inedible Beef Tallow which arrived at Calcutta as more particularly mentioned in Annexure I It is obvious that the interim order is of a drastic character with a great potential for mischief
The Principal prayer in the writ petition is the challenge to the order made or proposed to be made under clause 8 B of the Import Control order
The interim order in terms of prayers j and k has the effect of practically allowing the writ petition at the stage of admission without hearing the opposite parties
While we do not wish to say that a drastic interim order may never be passed without hearing the opposite parties even if the circumstances justify it we are very firmly of the opinion that a statutory order such as the one made in the present case under clause 8 B of the Import Control order ought not to have been stayed without at least hearing those that made the order
Such a stay may lead to devastating consequences leaving no way of undoing the mischief Where a plenitude of power is given under a statute designed to meet a dire situation it is no answer to say that the very nature of the power and the consequences which may ensure is itself a sufficient justification for the grant of a stay of that order unless of course there are sufficient circumstances to justify a strong prima facie inference that the order was made in abuse of the power conferred by the statute
A statutory order such as the one under clause 8 B purports to be made in the public interest and unless there are even stronger grounds of public interest an exparte interim order will not be justified
The only appropriate order to make in such cases is to issue notice of the respondents and make it returnable within a short period
This should particularly be so where the offices of the principal respondents and relevant records lie outside 347 the ordinary jurisdiction of the court
To grant interim relief straight away and leave it to the respondents to move the court to vacate the interim order may jeopardise the public interest
It is notorious how if an interim order is once made by a court parties employ every device and tactic to ward off the final hearing of the application
It is therefore necessary for the courts to be circumspect in the matter of granting interim relief more particularly so where the interim relief is directed against orders or actions of public officials acting in discharge of their public duty and in exercise of statutory powers
On the facts and circumstances of the present case we are satisfied that no interim relief should have been granted by the High Court in the terms in which it was done
Orders under clause 8 B of the Import Control order similar to the one made against Oswal Woollen Mills Limited were made against various import export houses and others
Some of these orders have been questioned by the affected parties in different High Courts and in some cases interim orders have also been obtained
One such writ petition filed by Liberty Oil Mills Pvt
Limited has been transferred to this court from the Bombay High Court at the instance of the Union of India
The case is now pending in this Court and has in fact been heard in part by this vary Bench
Apparently under the impression that the questions at issue will be finally determined by this court in the case of the Liberty oil Mills the Union of India and the other authorities do not seem to have moved expeditiously to contest the writ petitions filed in the High Courts and to have the interim orders vacated
In the present case an application to vacate the interim order was filed in the Calcutta High Court on February 1 1984
In the meanwhile oswal Woollen Mills Limited went on writing letters and sending telegrams complaining that the interim orders of the High Court had not been obeyed and threatening action for contempt of Court
On January 6 1984 an application to commit the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports and others for contempt of court was filed by the company
Notice to the respondents was ordered on the same day and on February 3 1984 overruling the request made on behalf of the respondents that the petition to vacate the interim order may be heard first the High Court issued a rule in the application for contempt of court against the Chief Controller of Imports  Exports and the Deputy Chief Controller of Imports and Exports and directed them to appear in person on March 6 1984 Thereupon the Union of India the Chief Controller of Imports  Exports etc
348 have filed the present special leave petition against the interim order dated November 22 1983 of the Calcutta High Court in Civil Rule No10933 W of 1983 and the rule for contempt of court issued on February 3 1984 in Civil Rule No 571 W of 1984
We have heard Shri Milon Banerjee learned Additional Solicitor General for the petitioners and Shri Soli Sorabjee learned senior Advocate for the respondents
We have already mentioned that the High Court was not right in granting interim relief in the terms in which it had done so
We therefore vacate the interim order dated November 22 1983 made by the Calcutta High Court
It has been pointed out to us that the Chief Controller of Imports  Exports has himself issued a Public Notice dated 1st September 1983 permitting re shipmentre export of import consignment which could not be cleared consequent upon the Ministry of Commerce Import Trade Control order No 2783 dated the 24th August 1983
The Public Notice empowers the customs authority to allow re shipmentre export having regard to the extent to which foreign exchange spent on import will be earned back and subject to such other conditions relating thereto as the Customs authority may impose
We wish to make it clear that the vacating of the interim order will not disentitle the writ petitioners from seeking and taking advantage of the public notice dated September 1 1983
In regard to the rule for contempt of court we find it difficult to sustain the same
Though ordinarily we would have left the matter to be decided by the High Court we think it unnecessary to do so in the present case having regard to the elaborate arguments addressed to us by both parties
The complaint of the writ petitioners in seeking the rule for contempt of court was that the authorities had not dealt with their applications for licences etc
despite the abeyance  order having been stayed
It is obvious that the stay of the operation of the abeyance  order merely meant that the writ petitioners were entitled to have their applications disposed of by the concerned authorities
The High Court not having set any limit of time for the disposal of the applications it was not for the writ petitioners to impose a time limit and demand that their applications should be disposed of forthwith
If the writ petitioners were aggrieved by the failure of their authorities to dispose of their applications expeditiously it was open to them to seek a further direction from the court to fixing a limit of time within which the 349 applications were to be disposed of
We fail to see how the Chief Controller of Imports  Exports or the Deputy Chief Controller of Imports  Exports could be said to have committed any contempt of court even prima facie by their mere failure to take action in the matter of the disposal of the applications of the writ petitions
In the circumstances we perceive the application to commit the authorities for contempt of court to be a device to exact licences from them
We accordingly allow the appeal vacate the interim order dated November 22 1983 of the Calcutta High Court in Civil Rule No 10933 W of 1983 and quash the rule for contempt of court issued on February 3 1984 in Civil Rule No 571 W of 1984
Before we part with the case we may refer to a statement made by Shri JP Sharma Deputy Chief Controller of Imports and Exports New Delhi in the affidavit filed by him before us to the effect that in the larger public interest Government was unable to obey the interim order and had taken the question to this Hon ble Court which is pending decision shortly 
Torn out of the context in which it was made the unhappy language in which it has been expressed is suggestive of contumaciousness on the part of JP Sharma
However he has filed further affidavits before us explaining the context in which the statement was made and expressing his unqualified regret
We accept his explanation and expression of regret
We are satisfied that Shri JP Sharma did not mean what the language employed by him suggested
However we do wish to express our disapproval of the language employed which is certainly suggestive of contumaciousness
NVK Appeal allowed


Summary:
The respondents filed a writ petition in the High Court of Calcutta against an order made under Clause 8 B of the Import Control order 1955 in respect of a consignment of beef tallow which arrived at the Calcutta Port
A Single Judge issued a rule and granted an interim order restraining the Union of India and the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports from filing any criminal complaint against the respondent firm or its Directors and also a direction to permit the respondents to re export the consignment of tallow
An application was made by the Union of India to vacate the interim order
In the meanwhile the respondents sent letters and telegrams to the department intimating that the interim order of the High Court had not been obeyed and threatening action for contempt of Court
An application to commit the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports and others for contempt of court was filed by the company
Over ruling the request made on behalf of the Department to vacate the interim order the court issued a rule in the application for contempt and directed the Department officials to appear in person
Being aggrieved by the order the Department filed a Special Leave Petition against the interim order and the rule for contempt
Allowing the appeal vacating the interim order and quashing the rule for contempt of Court  HELD 1
Writ petitions are often deliberately filed in distant High Courts as part of a manoeuvre in a legal battle so as to render it difficult for 343 the officials at Delhi to move applications to vacate stay where it becomes necessary to file such applications
An inevitable result of the filing of writ petitions elsewhere than at the place where the concerned offices and the relevant records are located is to delay prompt return and contest
345B C A In the instant case the writ petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court when the office of the company is in the State of Punjab and all the principal respondents are in Delhi
A statutory order such as the one under Clause 8 B of the Import Control Order purports to be made in the public interest and unless there are even stronger grounds of public interest an ex parte interim order will not be justified
The only appropriate order to make in such cases is to issue notice to the respondents and make it returnable within a short period
This should particularly be so where the offices of the principal respondents and relevant records lie outside the ordinary jurisdiction of the Court
To grant interim relief straight away and leave it to the respondents to have the interim order vacated may jeopardise the public interest
346G 347A 3
If an interim order is once made by a court parties employ every device and tactic to ward off the final hearing of the application
It is therefore necessary for the courts to be circumspect in the matter of granting interim relief more particularly so where the interim relief is directed against
orders or actions of public officials acting in discharge of their public duty and in exercise of statutory powers
347B In the instant case no interim relief should have been granted by the High Court
The interim order is of a drastic character with a great potential for mischief and has the effect of practically allowing the writ petition at the stage of admission without hearing the opposite parties
347C 346D 4
The application to commit the authorities for contempt of court appears to be a device to exact licences from them
349B In the instant case the stay of the operation of the abeyance  order merely meant that the writ petitioners were entitled to have their applications disposed of by the concerned authorities
The High Court not having set any limit of time for the disposal of the applications it was not for the writ petitioners to impose a time limit and demand that their applications should be disposed of forthwith
If the writ petitioners were aggrieved by the failure of the authorities to dispose of their applications expeditiously it was open to them to seek a further direction from the court fixing a limit of time within which the applications were to be disposed of
348G 349A 344