An earlier judicial direction to fix the bed-bug-infested sofas in a railway station’s VIP room went unheeded, so the Magistrate has now moved to contempt. High Court judges who wait in the room had reportedly been sitting in their cars instead. The Divisional Railway Manager has been asked to show cause and to appear in person on September 30.
Aurangabad: A Maharashtra Magistrate has issued a notice to the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Nanded Division, asking him to show cause why contempt action should not be taken for non-compliance with an earlier direction to replace the sofas in the VIP room at the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar railway station, which were found to have bed-bugs, and to conduct pest control.
The notice was issued by the Judicial Magistrate (Railways), Aurangabad.
The earlier direction
According to the report, the Judicial Magistrate (Railways), Aurangabad had, in May, issued a letter to the DRM directing pest control in the VIP room of the railway station, after two Bombay High Court judges had noticed the condition of the room and reported it. Last week, the Judge, in a further letter to the DRM, recorded that it appeared the sofas had not been replaced, noting that several judges sitting at the Bombay High Court’s bench at Aurangabad often travel by train and wait in the VIP room.
The letter described it as a “very disgusting position” for the judges to sit on the sofas, adding that they were, in the circumstances, sitting in their cars rather than in the VIP room.
The contempt notice
The letter noted that the Railways had neither taken any “satisfactory action” on the earlier letter nor responded to it, and that this amounted to “blatant disrespect to the direction of the Judicial Officer, which is contemptuous”, and had caused inconvenience to the High Court judges. The Magistrate accordingly directed the DRM to show cause as to why action under the Contempt of Court Act should not be taken, and to remain personally present in the court on September 30.
Why it matters
Behind an unusual subject, sofas in a station waiting room, is a familiar point about the enforcement of judicial directions. Contempt jurisdiction exists to ensure that orders and directions of a court are not ignored by those to whom they are addressed; where a direction is met with neither compliance nor a response, the court may treat the inaction as disrespect to its authority and initiate contempt to compel action. The show-cause notice is the first, non-coercive step in that process, giving the officer an opportunity to explain, or to comply, before any action is taken.
It bears noting that no finding of contempt has been made; the DRM has been called upon to show cause and to appear in person, and the matter will be taken up on September 30. The purpose of such a notice is ordinarily to secure compliance rather than to punish, and it is open to the authority to remedy the grievance and satisfy the court. What the episode illustrates is that a direction of a court, whatever its subject, is not optional; an administrative body that neither acts on it nor responds risks the court invoking its contempt powers to enforce it.
Matter: Show-cause contempt notice over non-replacement of pest-infested sofas and non-compliance with a pest-control direction, VIP room, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar railway station
Issued by: Judicial Magistrate (Railways), Aurangabad
To: Divisional Railway Manager, Nanded Division
Status: Show-cause notice issued; DRM directed to appear in person on September 30. No finding of contempt made.