Order Sheet

IN THE HIGH COURT OF SINDH AT KARACHI

Suit No. 122 of 2006

Date	Order with signature of Judge

Mrs. Sarwar Jehan Advocate for the plaintiffs a/w plaintiffs 1 and 2.

Syed Iftikhar ul Hassan Advocate for the defendants & the alleged contemnors

Date of hearing : 17.09.2015.

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ORDER ON C.M.A. No. 3260 OF 2006

NADEEM AKHTAR, J.– This application has been filed by the plaintiffs praying inter alia that action in accordance with law be initiated against the alleged contemnors named therein for disobeying and violating the ad-interim order passed by this Court on 07.02.2006.

2. The facts relevant for the purposes of this application are that the instant Suit for declaration and permanent injunction was filed by the plaintiffs against the defendants, who are City District Government Karachi (now defunct) and its two officers. An injunction application bearing CMA No.690/2006 was filed by the plaintiffs in this Suit praying that the defendants be restrained from removing their hoardings / billboards / signboards listed in annexure P/1 to the plaint. The above application came up for hearing on 07.02.2006 when learned counsel for the defendants filed his memo of appearance and due to this reason, the hearing was adjourned to 28.02.2006. On 07.02.2006, it was ordered that “Till then the billboard of the plaintiffs installed at Nazimabad A.O. Clinic for which advertisement fee and land tax in the sum of Rs.67,500/= has been paid upto 30-6-06 will not be dismantled by the defendants.”

3. This application was filed by the plaintiffs on 03.05.2006 against the alleged contemnors named therein, alleging that despite the above ad-interim order they illegally removed the plaintiffs’ hoardings / billboards / signboards installed at the sites mentioned in paragraph 5 of the application. The plaintiffs have prayed that the alleged contemnors be directed to install / restore all such hoardings / billboards / signboards at their cost and to pay Rs.22,950,000.00 to them as compensation, and action be taken against them in accordance with law for violating the aforesaid order. Counter affidavits were filed by the alleged contemnors denying all the allegations made against them by the plaintiffs, to which no rejoinder has been filed by the plaintiffs.

4. I have noticed that six (06) sites have been specifically mentioned by the plaintiffs in paragraph 5 of this application, which are Shaheed-e-Millat Road, Urdu Science College, Tando Adam Sajji near Expo Centre, Noorani Chowrangi, Allahdin Park and 2000 Security Shahra-e-Qaideen. They have alleged that their hoardings / billboards / signboards were illegally removed by the alleged contemnors from the aforementioned six sites in violation of the ad-interim order. Perusal of the ad-interim order passed by this Court on 07.02.2006 shows that direction to the defendants for not dismantling the billboard of the plaintiffs was given only in respect of the billboard at Nazimabad A.O. Clinic for which advertisement fee and land tax in the sum of Rs.67,500/= had been paid upto 30.06.2006. The ad-interim order clearly shows that no direction whatsoever was given therein in respect of any of the above six sites alleged by the plaintiffs. Moreover, the site of Nazimabad A.O. Clinic, for which the direction was given, is not mentioned in paragraph 5 of the application. It is, therefore, clear that there is no allegation at all by the plaintiffs in respect of the site for which the direction was given to the defendants in the ad-interim order.

5. When the learned counsel for the plaintiffs was confronted with the above position, she conceded that the site specified in the ad-interim order is not mentioned in paragraph 5 of the application and there is no allegation in respect thereof. She also conceded that no coercive action was taken by the defendants in relation to the site specified in the ad-interim order. She, however, contended that after receiving notice from this Court and having knowledge of the ad-interim order, the defendants were obliged not to take any coercive action in respect of any of the hoardings / billboards / signboards installed by the plaintiffs at other sites. She insisted that by removing the hoardings / billboards / signboards of the plaintiffs from the said other sites, the alleged contemnors have willfully violated the ad-interim order. No other argument was advanced by the learned counsel in support of this application.

6. I am afraid the submissions made by the learned counsel for the plaintiffs cannot be accepted. The direction given to the defendants in the ad-interim order was in respect of the billboard at only one particular site, that is, Nazimabad A.O. Clinic, which was specifically mentioned in the said order. Not only this, it was further clarified in the said order that such direction was in respect of the site for which advertisement fee and land tax in the sum of Rs.67,500/= had been paid up to 30.06.2006. In my mind, there is no ambiguity in the said order and as such no other meaning or interpretation can be attributed to the same, especially when the plaintiffs have admitted that no coercive action was taken by the defendants in relation to the site specified in the ad-interim order. Moreover, the site specified in the ad-interim order is not the subject matter of this application as it is not mentioned in paragraph 5 of the application which contains a list of all such sites from where the hoardings / billboards / signboards of the plaintiffs were illegally removed according to them. It is well-settled that the law of contempt of Court has to be construed very strictly. In view of the above discussion, there is no merit or substance in this application, thus it is liable to be dismissed with costs as it has been kept pending before this Court by the plaintiffs unnecessarily for almost a decade.

Foregoing are the reasons of the short order announced by me on 17.09.2015, whereby this application was dismissed with costs of Rs.10,000.00 (Rupees ten thousand only) to be deposited by the plaintiffs with the High Court Employees’ Benevolent Fund.

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J U D G E