Contempt of Court Act, 1971 – s.2(b) – Civil contempt – When – Agreement entered between the Petitioner-Association and Respondent permitted the latter to occupy and use the Property of the Petitioner for 10 years on payment of licence fees – Persistent defaults in the payment of licence fees by the Respondent – Litigation between parties across forums; settlement Agreement arrived at however, Respondent again defaulted in making payment thereunder – Eventually, matter reached this court; vide order dtd. 07.11.2022 as an interim measure, Respondent was directed to pay arrears of use and occupation charges in six monthly instalments – Non-compliance by the Respondent alleging financial incapabilities – Contempt Petition filed by the Association: Held: Civil contempt means wilful disobedience of judgment, decree, or direction, order, writ or other process of the Court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to the Court – All throughout, the Respondent had been in possession of the property and utilising the income generated from running of the said resort – Non-fulfilment of the mandate and direction of this Court which were at the request of the Respondent himself reflects his intent to not comply with the order rather to violate the same with impunity – The conduct clearly reflects that the intention of the Respondent was to gain the benefit by running the resort in the subject property without paying the current liability, what to say of the arrears – A party, misguiding the Court to pass an order which was never intended to be complied with, would constitute an act of overawing the due process of law and, thus, commit contempt of Court – From the very beginning till the very end the Respondent took the Court for a ride – There has been intentional and deliberate non-compliance on the part of the Respondent of the order passed by this Court, contempt of which stands committed, but on getting an interim order of continuing in possession usurped the earnings instead of paying off the dues – Therefore, the malafide is writ large – Respondent guilty of Civil Contempt – 3 months simple imprisonment imposed with fine of INR 20,000/- – However, 30 days granted as one more opportunity to purge the contempt and comply with the Order dtd. 07.11.2022. [Paras 28, 31, 36, 41, 42]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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