DINESH CHANDRA SWAMI Vs. A MOHAMMAD MADANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE question that squarely falls for consideration in this contempt petition is whether the observation made by the High Court while dismissing the appeal and directing the parties to file a civil suit for adjudication of the dispute could be construed as a direction to the trial Court to decide the suit in a particular manner in violation of which he could be hauled up for contempt of court.

(2.) THE circumstance under which the aforesaid question arises, emerges out of a petition for a contempt filed by the applicant against the Additional District & Sessions Judge No. 2, Jaipur City, Jaipur Shri K. Mohammad Madani on the ground that the respondent-contemner, while deciding the suit for partition between the plaintiff-applicant and the defendant, did not decide it as per the observations made by the learned Judges in D. B. Civil Special Appeal No. 54/1994.

(3.) THE scope of contempt, in our view, cannot be extended or stretched to a level of teaching a lesson to the subordinate judicial officer by merely inferring that the subordinate judicial officer perhaps has not followed the spirit of the observation made by the High Court as it would be very dicey and cannot be permitted to be used by the litigant as a tool in order to teach a lesson to him specially when the observation is not in the form of categorical direction and is merely a prima facie opinion of the court.