Sheikh M. Maroof vs Phoenix Arc Pvt Ltd & Ors. on 22 April, 2021
CORAM:
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE VIPIN SANGHI
HON’BLE MS. JUSTICE REKHA PALLI
Author: VIPIN SANGHI, J
An order passed by a competent court interim or final- has to be obeyed without any reservation. If such order is disobeyed or not complied with, the Court may refuse the party violating such order to hear him on merits. We are not unmindful of the situation that refusal to hear a party to the proceeding on merits is a ‘drastic step’ and such a serious penalty should not be imposed on him except in grave and extraordinary situations, but some time such an action is needed in the larger interest of justice when a party obtaining interim relief intentionally and deliberately flouts such order by not abiding the terms and conditions on which a relief is granted by the Court in his favour.
{Para 21}
25. That, however, does not mean that in each and every case in which a party has violated an interim order has no right to be heard at all. Nor the court will refuse to hear him in all circumstances. The normal rule is that an application by a party will not be entertained until he has purged himself of the contempt. There are, however, certain exceptions to this rule. One of such exceptions is that the party may appeal with a view to setting aside the order on which his alleged contempt is founded. A person against whom contempt is alleged must be heard in support of the submission that having regard to the meaning and intendment of the order which he is said to have disobeyed, his actions did not constitute a breach of it.
