PRAYAGRAJ, March 3 -- While initiating contempt proceedings against two police officers, the Allahabad high court has observed that a judicial officer, while discharging official duty, is above the district magistrate, the district police chief and even the political head of a state, and that disregarding his order is unpardonable. The court further said that such disregard for a judicial officer's orders is not merely contempt of court but a direct challenge to the authority of law.

On February 19, the bench of Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal, while hearing a bail application of an accused arrested for financial bungling in Lalitpur district, also came down heavily on errant police officials for ignoring the orders of a chief judicial ...