Contempt plea against principal secy for not obeying HC on relief to the elderly

The Bombay High Court on Thursday admitted a contempt petition against the principal secretary of home department and senior police inspector of the Andheri (East) police station.

They had not followed its last year’s order to compensate 17 senior citizens, including two women, who were wrongly detained at the police station under the Gambling Act.

On August 10, 2011, the police raided Andheri Gymkhana, where the group was playing rummy and bridge, and seized counters and a few thousand rupees.

On June 25 last year, the court had ordered the state government to compensate all the petitioners after the Andheri police illegally detained the group. However, a reminder sent around two months ago over the compensation amount elicited no response.The seized goods were returned to the petitioners on May 24 this year.

On Thursday, a division bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice GS Patel admitted the petition and issued notices to the state government.

Advocate Tejas Bhatt appearing for petitioners Jaywant Sail and 16 others — all senior citizens with an average age of 60 to 65 years, argued: “The last year’s order was like a rap on the police’s knuckles. But, even after reminders they have not compensated the petitioners. This is a gross violation of the court order and thus contempt action needs to be initiated against them.”However the prosecution argued that since it is regarding recovering of compensation, a civil contempt should have been filed and thus it would have been placed before an appropriate court.

The bench said: “A criminal contempt petition can be admitted.”