SC holds tenant guilty of contempt, sends him to prison for not vacating premises

New Delhi, Sep 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday held two persons guilty of contempt for willfully disobeying its order to vacate their rental premises in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district and imposed civil imprisonment on one of them.

A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi sentenced the contemnor to three months' civil imprisonment and directed authorities to take him into custody and send him to Tihar Jail.

The case stems from an Allahabad High Court order upholding the Rent Control Authority's direction to evict the tenants/contemnors in the case.

He was also ordered to pay a Rs 1 lakh fine to the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within two months, failing which he has to undergo an additional one-month prison time.

"Both contemnors are guilty of deliberate and willful non-compliance of the directions passed by this court and repeatedly attempting to make incorrect and misleading statements contrary to the record," the bench said.

The top court, however, preferred a lenient view for contemnor 1, imposing a Rs 50,000 fine, which he was directed to deposit with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within two months.

Any non-compliance would attract a month of civil prison, the top court added.

Contemnor 2, on the other hand, was sentenced to three months' civil prison and slapped with a Rs 1 lakh fine, which was directed to be deposited with the top court's legal services committee within two months.

"In default of payment of fine, he shall serve a further period of civil prison for one month. He shall be taken into custody by the security personnel of this Court and be handed over to the jail authorities of Tihar Jail, Delhi to serve the sentence as directed," the bench ordered. PTI PKS AMK AMK