ASHA RANI GUPTA Vs. RAJENDER KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Defendant no.1 stands held guilty of having violated the directions of this Court given to him in this suit for permanent injunction. Now is the stage for awarding appropriate punishment to the contemnor.

(2.) For arriving at a proper conclusion in the matter of punishment to be awarded to the contemnor little background facts leading to his being held guilty need to be noticed again. The two defendants in the suit were alleged to have inherited the tenancy rights from their deceased father in respect of one shop and back courtyard on the ground floor of property no. 7, Jor Bagh Market, New Delhi, which is residential-cum-commercial property.

(3.) However, defendant no. 1 alone was doing dry cleaning business in the said tenanted shop. There is one more shop also on the ground floor besides a verandah and a toilet which were, however, meant for common use for the occupants of the two shops on the ground floor as well as the first floor portion which at the time of filing of the suit were in possession of the plaintiff. It was pleaded in the plaint that defendant no.1 had on 30.04.2010 broken the back side wall of the open space in his occupation and unauthorisedly kept a heavy dry cleaning machine in the common verandah restricting the passage to common area of common verandah and the common toilet and he had also installed a water treatment plant in the open space under his tenancy which created noise, air and water pollution due to which the plaintiff-landlady started having health problems. Similarly, the defendant no.1 also closed the entry to the common verandah and toilet. When called upon by the plaintiff to undo what he had done illegally the defendant no.1 refused to oblige and that led to the filing of the present suit in which the plaintiff-landlady prayed for restraining defendant no.1 from creating any hindrances in peaceful enjoyment of the common verandah and toilet and also for directing him to remove the dry cleaning machine from the common verandah and water treatment plant and other encroachments also.