NEW DELHI: A contempt of court case was booked against a retired chief justice of a high court, in a first-of-its-kind incident. However, the court later droped its proceedings against the judge.
Justice (Retd) Karpaga Vinayagam was the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court. He retired on May 15, 2008. Soon he was elevated as the chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, a position equal to that of a judge of the Supreme Court.
In its contempt petition against Justice Vinayagam and Member Technical V J Talwar, M/S Orange County Resorts And Hotels Ltd sought an inquiry and initiation of appropriate action against both of them for their “willful disobedience” of the order passed by the Karnataka High Court on November 18, last year.
It all began when Orange County moved Karnataka High Court against a Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission’s order on power utilisation by the firm. But when the matter came up for hearing on November 18, 2010, the company offered to withdraw the writ petition seeking to challenge the same before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity to which the HC agreed.
The HC then passed the order saying, “If Orange Country moves the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity within four weeks from then, ATE should consider it without objecting to the limitation and condonation of the delay.” But when the matter came up for hearing before the ATE, Justice Vinayagam and Talwar passed an order expressing inability to comply with the HC directions.