New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Delhi High Court’s order which reviewed an order of its single judge in a contempt case.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih noted that the single judge in December 2023 held the man guilty of “intentionally and malafidely” violating its order.
The single judge granted him four weeks either to purge the contempt, or failing which, file an affidavit explaining why he should not be punished under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the bench said.
The apex court said when the matter was listed before another single judge of the high court in July 2024 after the change of roster, the judge came to a conclusion that there was no willful and deliberate disobedience of the court’s order.
“Apart from this being in excess of the jurisdiction, it is also contrary to the well settled principles of judicial propriety,” the bench held.
The top court added, “When one judge of the same court has taken a particular view holding the respondent to be guilty of contempt, another judge could not have come to a finding that the respondent was not guilty of contempt.”
The top court found it not permissible for the single judge to have revisited the issue to decide if the man had committed contempt or not.
“In our view, the order of the single judge of the high court by holding that the respondent had not committed contempt amounts to sitting in an appeal over the order passed by the coordinate bench dated December 5, 2023,” it said.
The apex court’s verdict came on an appeal challenging the July 2024 order of the high court which dismissed the contempt petition filed by the appellants.
The top court clarified that it would not go into the merits of the matter and it was only considering the correctness of the procedure adopted by the single judge while passing the July 2024 order.
After the order was passed in December 2023, the single judge could have only considered whether the man had purged the contempt and if not, whether he should be punished or not under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the bench said.
“In that view of the matter, we are inclined to quash and set aside the impugned judgment and final order. We order accordingly,” it held.
The matter was remitted to the single judge of the high court for considering the issue from the stage of passing of the December 2023 order.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.