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Sundar Gupta & Ors. v. Sunil Vasudeva & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 717Decided 2 Jul 2019
Civil Appeal No. 5140 of 2019
Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

The petitioners had filed a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with an earlier order in the underlying Civil Appeal arising out of SLP(C) No.5449 of 2015 (between the same parties). On the very same day, the same Bench decided that underlying civil appeal itself in a separate order dated 2 July 2019.

Decision Breakdown

Since the underlying civil appeal had just been finally decided by the Court's own order of the same date, the Bench held that the contempt petition had become infructuous (i.e., there was nothing left for it to achieve, since the order it concerned had been superseded by the fresh disposal). It accordingly dismissed the contempt petition as infructuous and disposed of any pending applications in it.

Lesson Learnt

A contempt petition alleging non-compliance with an earlier court order typically becomes redundant once the underlying matter itself is finally re-decided by the Court: contempt proceedings are tied to enforcement of a specific order, not an independent dispute in themselves.

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

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