Taking note of many contempt of court cases initiated by litigants against the State government and its agencies for not implementing orders of the court for unreasonably long periods, the High Court of Karnataka on Monday suo motu initiated a PIL petition to streamline the procedure for compliance and to create an effective machinery to oversee implementation of the court’s orders.
“The orders of the courts so disregarded and neglected for their compliance bring about a situation where the public at large would view that the system has failed. It would be considered that the courts have been losing their authority and their orders do not have any effect on the authorities of the government,” the court observed.
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice Krishna S. Dixit, passed the order while pointing out it has come across a large number of cases under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, in which “the authorities have been found sitting tight over the orders of the court for unreasonably long period.”
