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Manmeet Sumra Chonker vs. Vipal Kumar Farmah & Anr.

Contempt Case (Civil) · 2026:DHC:7573Decided 1 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CONT.CAS(C) 1087/2025CNR: DLHC010479212025
Justice Mini Pushkarna

Background

The petitioner, who ran a nursery school as a tenant on a shop premises in Naraina, Delhi, had settled an earlier eviction dispute with her landlords (the respondents) through a Settlement Agreement dated 9 September 2024, recorded in an earlier RFA. Under the settlement, the petitioner agreed to vacate by 30 April 2025 and, in exchange, the landlords agreed to compensate her for relocation and re-establishment costs, including the rent difference between the old and new premises for three years. The petitioner vacated as agreed and then relocated her school to Mohali, Punjab, a premises nearly five times larger with rent about five times higher, and filed this contempt petition alleging the landlords had breached the settlement by not paying this compensation.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that no contempt had been committed. It reasoned that the Settlement Agreement, executed for a school running in New Delhi, could not be stretched to mean the landlords were bound to compensate the petitioner for opening a much larger school in an entirely different city at a much higher rent; that was not the reasonable intention of the parties when they signed the agreement. The Court also noted the petitioner admitted the new premises was rented from her own brother-in-law. Finding the petitioner's interpretation "unreasonable," the Court dismissed the petition.

Lesson Learnt

A settlement agreement's compensation clauses are interpreted according to the reasonable intention of the parties at the time of signing: a party cannot later stretch generic terms like "relocation cost" to cover an unrelated, much larger commitment made afterward, and doing so will not succeed as a contempt claim.

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