J&K High Court has issued a notice to an officer of Tourism department asking her as to why contempt proceedings shall not be initiated against her for “obstructing” a judicial magistrate from performing his duties.
A division bench of Justice Ali MuhammadMagrey and Justice D S Thakur asked its Registry to issue notice to Nuzhat Gulafter considering the Civil Miscellaneous plea made on the basis of thecommuniqué addressed by the Special Mobile Magistrate (Traffic) Srinagar toRegistrar Judicial of High Court.
The report of theRegistrar Judicial reveals that Special Mobile Magistrate (Traffic) Srinagaraddressed a communiqué to her which divulged that while he was holding theMobile Court at Nishat Road near Royal Golf Course on 10 March 2020, Nuzhat Gulcaused “unnecessary obstruction and used a filthy language against theMagistrate.”
While the Magistrate hassought initiation of contempt proceedings against the lady, the Registrytreated the communiqué of the Special Mobile Magistrate Srinagar as CivilMiscellaneous plea and listed it for consideration before the division bench.
The Bench asked the Registry to issue a notice atthe official address of the lady named in the report of the Magistrate askingher to show cause as to why she shall not be proceeded against in terms ofapplicable laws for obstructing a judicial Magistrate from performing hisduties.
The court said the noticebe issued to the lady after ascertaining her particulars from the CommissionerSecretary, Tourism Department.
The perusal of thereport of the Registrar Judicial accompanied with the communiqué of the SpecialMobile Magistrate Srinagar, the court said, reveals that the Magistrate was”literally manhandled and the language used against him wasdeplorable.”
“However, before proceeding further, we direct theMagistrate to file his own affidavit as also of the staff who were accompanyingthe Magistrate on the alleged date of occurrence detailing out the events,within two days” the court added.
The court asked the Registry to prepare an index of the caseand list it separately as “Suo Moto Action vs Ms Nuzhat Gul”
The court requested senior additional advocate N H Shah toassist in the matter while it listed the case for further hearing on March20.