IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CM No.26554-CII of 2009 in COCP No.2033 of 2008 (O&M) Date of decision: January 25, 2010. Smt. Badho Devi ...Appellant(s) v. Shri JPL Shrivastava & Anr. ...Respondent(s) CORAM:HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG Present: Shri R.S. Sangwan, Advocate, for the applicant-petitioner. Shri Amit Goyal, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana for the respondents. Rakesh Kumar Garg, J. (Oral): Shri K.L. Minhas, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Haryana and Shri Shamsher Singh Saini, Divisional Forest Officer (Territorial), Bhiwani are present in Court. Shri Minhas has filed an affidavit dated 25.1.2010 in court on his behalf and the same is taken on record. In the aforesaid affidavit, it has been submitted as under:- “ That complying with the directions given by the Hon'ble Court on 22.1.2010 in the matter, the deponent on 22.1.2010 itself got released the ex-gratia payment and sanction of he arrears of the pension to the petitioner by taking personal initiative. The other benefits namely payment of leave encashment and release of pension and Gratuity were already released to the petitioner on 4.11.2009 and 10.12.2009 respectively. The true copies of the relevant supporting documents are annexed herewith. That regarding the reasons for the delay in compliance of impugned order dated 7.9.2009 of this Hon'ble Court, the deponent respectfully submits that the petitioner had completed the necessary formalities/papers in regard to release of pension and gratuity on 19.9.2009 and regarding ex-gratia payment thereafter in the office of respondent No.2 i.e. Shamsher Singh Saini, HFS, Divisional Forest Officer (Territorial), Bhiwani. But the said Divisional Forest Officer did not show due diligence to get complied with the directions of the Hon'ble Court issued while passing the impugned order on 7.9.2009 within the time frame of one month given by the Hon'ble Court. He submitted the case for further action in his controlling officer admittedly on 4.11.2009 vide his letter No.1862. After that the said controlling officer (the Conservator of Forests, West Circle, Hissar) instead of taking prompt action in the contempt matter, slept over it for 24 days without any cogent reasons and passed on the case to his superior officer on 28.11.2009. The said superior officer (the Chief Conservator of Forests, Protection-II, Panchkula), also kept the case in his office for 19 days without any cogent reasons ignoring the urgency in it and forwarded it to the office of the deponent on 17.12.2009. Thereafter, the Receipt Clerk, the Record Keeper, the Dealing Assistant and the concerned Superintendent in the Head Officer also took this important contempt matter in a casual manner and thus this resulted into avoidable delay of the level of each, making them liable for action.” Keeping in view the aforesaid reply, that the pensionary benefits have been released, this court is not inclined to proceed further in this matter. However, as submitted in para 6 of the affidavit that due diligence was not shown by the Shri Shamsher Singh Saini, Divisional Forest Officer, Bhiwani; Conservator of Forests, West Circle, Hissar and the Chief Conservator of Forest, Protection-II, Panchkula and that the other officers have taken a casual manner which has resulted in avoidable delay, the Department is at liberty to take any suitable action on the basis of the submissions made in para 6 of the affidavit, in accordance with law against the aforesaid officers. Disposed of. January 25, 2010. [ Rakesh Kumar Garg ] kadyan Judge