ABDUL KADAR FIDAHUSSEIN Vs. ABBASBHAI ABDUL QUAYOOM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondent had filed in the Court of the City Civil Court at Bombay Short Cause Suit No. 3357 of 1970 for a permanent injunction restraining the petitioner from interfering with his possession of the front portion of the shop situate on ground floor of Laxmi Bhavan 137, Fort Street, Fort, Bombay 1.

(2.) In that suit the present petitioner had filed a counter claim for recovery from the respondent possession of the said front portion of the shop. Pending the suit, on the respondent's notice of motion for a temporary injunction, the learned Judge of the City Civil Court, Bombay, appointed Assistant registrar of that Court to visit the premises and submit Report. Accordingly, the Assistant Registrar visited the shop and submitted his report stating that the entrance door of the said shop had three locks and that both the petitioner and the respondent had keys of the said three locks. The suit filed by the respondent and the counter claim filed by the petitioner ultimately terminated in a consent decree, the relevant terms of which are these :

(3.) However, on Aug. 9, 1971, the respondent fixed one more lock to the entrance door of the said shop in addition to the three locks which the Assistant Registrar had found without giving to the petitioner the duplicate key of the said lock. The fixing of the fourth lock resulted in the petitioner not being able to use or enter into the rear portion of the said shop whenever the respondent chose to close it and also during the period during which the said shop of the respondent remained closed. The petitioner, therefore, by his advocates letter dated Aug. 13, 1971 called upon the respondent to remove the said 4th lock and on the respondent's refusal to do so the petitioner took out proceedings against the respondent for contempt of Court in the City Civil Court. The learned Judge referred the matter for taking action to this Court under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. This Court found the respondent guilty of the contempt of Court and sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs. 50 and costs of the Government Pleader and the petitioner.