IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.5825 of 2008 DWIVEDY SURENDRA,ADVOCATE Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- 2 10.7.2008 The irony of the situation is not lost on this Court. The present petitioner was one of the petitioners on whose writ applications a Division Bench of this Court treating the case to be a PIL had passed order which got relief to many a citizens of the State but petitioner’s claim for arms licence made way back in the year, 1994 has not been acted upon. Petitioner had approached the District Magistrate, Buxar many a times and last of them being on 1.6.2007. It is not understood by the Court as to why a decision is not being taken. If it is out of some extraneous consideration since the petitioner happens to be one of the persons who came before this Court earlier and the series of order came to be passed against the State authorities, then it is a sad reflection on the respondents and their working. Some things do not change at the bureaucratic level even though certain issues are decided by the High Court after wasting much of public time in deliberations. The present case cannot be a better example of this. Non issuance of arms licences for years together has been cause for many a litigations before this High Court. Looking at the number of cases of similar nature being filed, one writ application namely, CWJC No. 13496 of 2004 was taken up by a Division Bench as a PIL. Various orders came to be passed at - 2 - various stages. Even when proceeding in the above mentioned writ application was going on, the Court had to take a very harsh approach due to lack of response at the level of the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police. In this regard a paragraph of the order dated 7.9.2005 is hereby reproduced:- “It appears that the District Magistrates and the Superintendents of Police are under the impression that they are above the law and on the pretext of the ensuing election to be held in this State, they can save their skin for disobedience of the Court’s order. So long as the rule of law has to prevail in this country everybody is subordinate to rule of law and has to carry out the directions of the Court. After going through the materials, we are of the view that all the District Magistrates in the State of Bihar have violated the orders of this Court, and accordingly a fit case for initiation of proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act is made out against each of them.” The matter thereafter was disposed of with categorical directions to the District Magistrates as well as the Superintendents of Police in the State of Bihar to do the needful in such cases but it seems after the matter was disposed of, the District authorities have gone back in hibernation. In the present writ application too the audacity of the respondents are obvious. The petitioner way back on 10.12.95 with several other applications thereafter approached to the - 3 - District Magistrate of Buxar. The Court is burdened with the same responsibility again in the year 2008 because no decision has been taken in the matter. This writ application has been filed in April, 2008 and there is no counter affidavit on the issue. In the normal course of things this fact is enough to initiate a proceeding of contempt against the concerned respondents because violation of Division Bench directives per se make out a case for the same. But this Court at this stage would like to refer this matter to the Principal Home Commissioner, Government of Bihar to examine as to who and why the violation of the Court’s directives is being indulged into, when he himself at one point of time faced contempt in the above mentioned writ application. If it is the feeling of the respondent authorities that judicial orders are only passed for the purpose of records then they are highly mistaken. The writ application is disposed of with a direction upon the District Magistrate that a decision be taken in the matter within four weeks from the date of communication/production of a copy of this order. The Principal Home Commissioner, Government of Bihar is directed to issue a notice to the District Magistrate, Buxar, seek explanation from him and communicate his findings in this regard to this Court in a sealed envelop within three months time from today. The endeavour of the Principal Home Commissioner shall be to fix responsibility upon the people including the District - 4 - Magistrate as to why judicial orders are not being followed and implemented. The writ application is disposed of with the above directions. RPS (Ajay Kumar Tripathi, J.)