CHHAGANBHAI NORSINBHAI Vs. SONI CHANDUBHAI GORDHANBHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under Section 19 (1) (b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The defendant-appellant was convicted by the Division Bench of the HighCourt of Gujarat for having deliberately violated an order secured from the High Court on 22 January 1973 upon undertaking given to it. The very first term of the order is:

(2.) He also undertook to clear the arrears of mesne profits and to continue to pay them regularly as and when due. Furthermore, he undertook not to part with possession in favour of any person other than the landlord decree-holder until he received the notice contemplated by the first condition. It is not disputed that the appellant received that notice on 10 October 1974. There is nothing in the conditions of the undertaking to imply that it was merely a consent order passed upon an agreement between the parties to which the order of the Court had been superadded. The order incorporated express undertakings to the Court although these may have induced the plaintiff to agree to the passing of the order in the form in which it was passed instead of pressing for an order of dismissal of the revision application before the High Court after which he could have executed his decree immediately. This feature, in itself, could not convert the order actually passed upon the undertakings given into a mere consent order. It was clearly a case of express undertakings to the Court incorporated in the order. The order passed on 22 January 1973, ended as follows:

(3.) The defendant appellant not only did not abide by the undertakings given to the High Court but his counsel took up the impossible position that it was a mere agreement between the parties to which an order of the Court had been appended. On this flimsy and unsustainable ground, an argument put forward before us was that there was no breach of any undertaking. The High Court found that express undertakings had been violated. We have no hesitation whatsoever in holding that the High Court's finding is correct upon the recorded admissions on behalf of the defendant-appellant. It is true that the defendant-appellant surrendered possession after the initiation of contempt proceedings in 1974. But, that made no difference to the initial wrong committed.