Jucs of years u~ ready. to be distributed. The question i~ whether the uction for disobedience was legal and just;ficd, and, in any case, the draconian punishment of Government by attaching its properties and putting its servants in jail was a desertion of judicial discretion whose haU-mark is to be firm but not authoritarian, liberal but not petulant, and ever informed by realism and impressed with contrition. ·. B We have here an interlocutory. injunction, though unusual, whose soundness is being tested in a separate proceeding in this Court. Let us, pro 1cnrpare, assume its valid existence and focus on the followup o[ a-lleged breach and visitation of punishment. What was the directiOn? Could it be practical to comply within that time, having due reg:m.l to the inertia of administrative processes? Was there c .rccus:mt refusal, and, if so, by whom, in the :onspcctus of fac1s .. here? When docs the court go to the extreme of imprisonment of , government servants at lesser levels, who ha.ve to act on orders from abole, for disobedience? Is it the path of judicial discretion to temper justice with mercy or practise the opposite? Above all, D though arising in limine, can there be an order of contingent artacbmcnt of unspt•cifird properties ? Can the court imprison any dne unidentified in the order by making an omnibus direction leaving the life-giving P"J.rt.S blanks to be filled up long after the judgment and, perhaps, to aUow the bailiff to sicze whom he regards as the violatory? May be, 'Hurry Kills' and 'hasten slowly' are mottos good £ for every one who exercises power either at the wheel of an autoroohlle or through the pen of a public functionary. · We will proceed to n:solve these questions which enbosom their anwcrs in their 'Cry formulation. For instance, does not the mere i.lk.ing c-.tll Cor the obvious a·nswer that no order by howt!vcr high a p power can be fair or reasonable if it jcopardiscs the person of a citizen wearing thl! armour of part Ill, without so much as spccificat-· JOg the identity of the human being upon whom the authority is w lay hands. And yet, the karncd .Munsif mw:ly directed that 'the (Jpposite part{ (a plurality of th.rc. including the entro.l Govcn- I IJII.: ot) be sent to civil jail. Morcowr, the order nottccs that the D1G viumal Superintendent (1'2) has ccn tranfcrro.:d an et th: inno ' l:~Ot trar>~krcc is put in peril ()f mcarccrat!On. Rcahstng thts fatal Jbw, the IIir.h Courc sought to repair the y:~wning tear by making . • tl11!, following obwrv:~tiun-cum-dircction : . Th.: karnct! Munsif Magistrate, who passed tht! earlier n 11' 1lkronJ.:wuary5,1976couldnotproceedwiththepro- .::nl:ng-> f 0 r sending ' the petitioners concerned to Civil Jail
