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Urban Infrastructure Real Estate Fund vs Dharmesh S. Jain

Not available · 2022 INSC 564Decided 12 May 2022
Not available
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

By an earlier detailed judgment dated 10.03.2022, the Supreme Court had already held the respondents, particularly Dharmesh S. Jain: guilty of contempt for wilfully disobeying an order of the Supreme Court dated 28.10.2021 and an order of the Bombay High Court dated 08.08.2019. The respondents were to be heard separately on the quantum of sentence, and the Court gave them time to either comply with the earlier orders or reach an amicable settlement with the petitioner. Despite this opportunity, no settlement was reached and the orders remained uncomplied with.

Decision Breakdown

Since the contemnors neither complied with the Court's and High Court's orders nor settled the dispute despite repeated opportunities, the Court sentenced respondent No. 1, Dharmesh S. Jain, to seven days' simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 5,00,000 on the respondents (Rs. 4,00,000 payable to the petitioner and Rs. 1,00,000 to the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority), to be deposited within two weeks before the Bombay High Court. As one final chance to purge the contempt, the Court kept the sentence in abeyance for two weeks, directing that if the orders were still not complied with by then, the sentence would take effect and the contemnor would have to surrender to undergo the imprisonment.

Lesson Learnt

Wilful, repeated disobedience of court orders, even after being given multiple chances to comply or settle, can result in actual imprisonment and substantial fines under the Contempt of Courts Act; courts do not treat contempt as a mere formality when compliance is deliberately avoided.

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

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