The High Court has sentenced a building owner, two developers, a landlord and an advocate-tenant to undergo imprisonment for contempt of court in three different cases. All the judgements were delivered on October 25, 2019, by the division bench of Justices Ravi Malimath and HP Sandesh.
In the first case, a building owner in Avenue Road, Suresh Kothari, has been sentenced to two months’ imprisonment for failing to follow a 2017 High Court order to stop construction in his building. Despite a status quo order, he constructed an additional floor in the building.
A complaint was filed by Kishin T Punjabi and a civil case ensued. Kothari lost the case and was directed to stop construction by the civil court. Sentencing him to jail, the HC said, “We are of the opinion that the accused has to be sentenced for wilful disobedience of the order of this Court…”
In the second case, Ramachandra Shetty A had a property dispute with AT Babu Rao and AT Shankar Rao. Babu Rao and Shankar Rao entered into a joint-development agreement with M Venkataram and P Ravindra Kumar of Vasathi Housing and Infra Private Limited, Hyderabad and Anu Builders and Developers. The case had reached the High Court which in December 2017 directed that “whenever they sell a flat to the intending purchaser, they should make it very clear that the sale is subject to the result of the suit.” Within days of that judgement, the developers sold a flat to Archana Singhode and Vinith Dhatta. Shetty filed a contempt petition. The HC sentenced Babu Rao, Ravindra Kumar and M Venkataram to “undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one month and also directed to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 each.”
In the third case, R Srinivas, who was trying to evict one of his tenants, Vinayaka Enterprises, did not find it smooth as the tenant continued to challenge it and did not vacate the premises.
Srinivas approached the HC alleging that the tenant was “coming in the way of the complainant taking the possession of the premises…” Sentencing the tenant B Sambashiva Reddy to undergo imprisonment of three months and a fine of Rs 2,000, the HC said, “…The accused being an advocate made all his efforts to scuttle the proceedings initiated by the complainant.”
