indian electricity act, 1910, sections 138 and 173 - indian penal code, 1860, section 379--electricity charges lying due--recovery of from petitioner-aggrieved filed petition--prior certificate proceedings against owner of house i.e. father of petitioner--during pendency his father expired--proceedings not followed up--house transferred 'in favour of step mother of petitioner--petitioner no where involved with matters of said house--present petitioner need not be held responsible for any dues on said house--case registered against petitioner set aside. - constitution of india article 215: [m. karpaga vinayagam, cjm, .y.eqbal & amareshwar sahay, r.k. merathia, narendra nath tiwari, jj] contempt proceedings review powers of high court held, article 215 of the constitution vests the high court with all the powers of court of record including the power to punish for its contempt. this special jurisdiction is inherent in a court of record from the very nature of the court itself. the said special power is not subject to the procedural law either of the criminal procedure code or the contempt of courts act. the high court can deal with the matter summarily and can adopt its own procedure. however, if the high court initiates the proceeding as a court of record, principle of natural justice must be applied and the contemner should be given sufficient opportunity to know the accusation and to defend himself. in the instant case, the contemner was served with the notice to show cause. he was well aware of the accusation. he also admitted his guilt. in view thereof, contention of the contemner lawyer that he was not heard on merit of the contempt application and the impugned judgment of punishing petitioner in contempt of court is violative of principles of natural justice, is not tenable.
article 215: contempt proceedings review of conviction held, it is the solemn duty of the bench and bar to maintain and uphold the majesty, authority and dignity of the courts for.....orderhari shankar prasad, j.1. heard.2. the only contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that earlier a certificate case was filed against the owner of the house who was father of the petitioner and before passing of any order in certificate proceeding, father of the petitioner died and therefore, certificate proceeding was dropped and there was no appeal or revision filed against the order passed in the certificate proceeding which was dropped. the instant case has been registered against the petitioner under sections 379, ipc and 173/138 of the indian electricity act. the bill amounting to rs. 52,122/- has been sent to the petitioner for payment and the amount includes rs. 5,000/- as charge for damage.3. further contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner in this regard is that after death of his father, the house was transferred in the name of his step mother and, therefore, he will not be liable to pay the bill and further that since no appeal or revision against dropping of certificate proceeding has been filed against that order and after death of father of the petitioner, his step mother was not made party or this petitioner was not made party in the certificate proceeding and, therefore, prayer has been made to quash the proceeding.4. counter-affidavit was filed on behalf of the state electricity board in which it has been stated that the petitioner had filed an application before the competent authority requesting therein to send the bill and he will make payment, the fact to that effect by the petitioner has been annexed with the counter-affidavit as annexure-b.5. considering the fact that the house stands in the name of the step mother of the petitioner and further that no such substitution was made in the certificate proceeding after death of the father of the petitioner, this application is allowed and annexure-2 is hereby quashed, so far as this petitioner is concerned.