AZAM WARRANT: HC SUMMONS CJM, SSP

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has directed the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Lucknow to appear before it on March 7 to explain as to why action not be taken against them for committing deliberate contempt of the court’s order and charges not be framed against them for non compliance of order dated March 1 related to bailable warrant against Azam Khan.

On March 1, the court had issued bailable warrant against UP Jal Nigam chairman Azam Khan (who is also a UP cabinet minister) for securing his presence in the court on March 6 in the service-related case of an engineer. Azam did not appear on Monday, despite the earlier order of the court. The court was informed that the warrant issued by the court on March 1 had not been executed. A division bench of justices Sudhir Agarwal and Ravindra Nath Mishra-II then issued the directives on a writ petition filed by UP Jal Nigam in 2013 through its chairman and others.

On behalf of the respondent, chairman UP Jal Nigam Azam Khan, advocate general ( AG ) Vijay Bahadur Singh filed an application seeking his exemption from personal appearance, saying that he was busy in election activities and so could not appear in court. The court rejected the application and observed, “Unless that order is complied with and petitioner purges himself, no defence can be considered of a person who still stands in non compliance of the court’s order.” The petitioners challenged the judgment of the UP public services tribunal, allowing the plaint of assistant engineer DK Singh in a service matter.