Excerpt
Supreme Court passed an order on 22 January 2021 in which it was said that “lawyers should prevent accepting last-minute briefs” to circumvent the proceedings of the court. This order was passed by the Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar in a case while considering contempt petition.
Facts of the Case
This is a case which is related to the dispute of the property, in which the Respondents were directed to vacate the possession of the disputed property and pass it to the Petitioners peacefully.
According to the order passed on 20 Nov. 2020, the learned counsel of the Respondent submitted that Respondent No. 1 and Respondent No. 5 have expired but Respondent No. 2, 3 and 4 are still in possession of the subjected property despite the order of the Court.
The Court gave these three Respondents one more chance to vacate the premises, without waiting for their explanations and said that the property should be vacated within 2 weeks. They will also be liable to pay compensation for overstaying as may be calculated by the Court.
In the order passed on 17 December 2020, Supreme Court passed an order directing all the three Respondents, namely: Mahesh Ramakrishna Tendolkar, Santosh Rajaram Patange and Suresh Mohanlal Mehta, to vacate the property in issue and to handover the possession of the property to the Petitioner. The Court also directed the Respondents to present personally for reporting compliance. The Respondents instead of being present physically chose to opt for a new lawyer.
After the failure of the Respondent parties to do as directed, the Petitioner filed the contempt petition.
Observation of the Court
When the Court found out that the Respondents were not present physically, even after directed by the Court and instead opted for a new lawyer, the Court found it as an alternative and as a delaying process and said that “We deprecate the practice and also express hope that the advocates accepting such last minutes briefs should escape from doing so, which is nothing but trying to circumvent the proceedings before the Court.”
Judgement of the Court
As a result of the failures of the Respondent to be present in the Court even after the order passed by the Court last month and directed all three of them to be physically present in the Court, the Court issued the non-bailable warrant for the three respondents, i.e, Mahesh Ramakrishna Tendolkar, Santosh Rajaram Patange and Suresh Mohanlal Mehta, to secure their presence and directed the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai to ensure that the warrants which are non-bailable in nature should be executed and all the three respondents should be present physically on the next hearing, dated 27 January 2021.
Through the said order Court allowed the petitioner to take possession of the property forcibly with the help of the Police force. The order also reiterated and directed “the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai should provide necessary police force to facilitate forcible eviction of respondent.”
The Court after the submission made by the Solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Petitioner regarding the exercising of the option given within next two days, said that the next hearing will take place on 27 January 2021 and allowed the Petitioner to proceed and exercise the options specified in the last order, dated 17 December 2020 and report their compliance.
Click here to view the Judgement.
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