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Raj Kapoor & Ors. vs Ram Kishor Arora & Ors.

Contempt Petition (Civil) · 2022 INSC 102Decided 27 Jan 2022
Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 16 of 2022
Dr Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud · Sanjiv Khanna

Background

The petitioners were flat buyers who had earlier obtained an order from the Supreme Court (in Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 923 of 2021, dated 21 January 2022) directing a real estate developer to pay them certain dues. These contempt petitions were filed to enforce compliance, alleging the developer had not paid what was owed.

Decision Breakdown

The court-appointed Amicus Curiae placed on record a computation of the dues owed to the flat buyer-petitioners. Counsel for the developer confirmed this computation had been worked out jointly with the flat buyers' representatives and undertook that payment would be made by 28 February 2022, in line with the Court's earlier order. The Court directed that the payment modalities for one specific buyer be worked out jointly by the Amicus Curiae, the developer's representative, and that buyer, and then disposed of all three contempt petitions on this basis.

Lesson Learnt

Contempt proceedings can be a practical and effective tool to compel actual compliance with a court's earlier payment order, and courts will often facilitate resolution through joint reconciliation of amounts (via an amicus) rather than punitive contempt findings, once the paying party commits to a concrete payment timeline.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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