Supreme Court Initiates Contempt Proceedings Against Litigant For Sending Letters To President Suppressing Undertaking Given To Court

The Supreme Court has initiated contempt proceedings against a litigant for writing a letter to the President of India intentionally suppressing an undertaking given by him to the Court.

A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Sandeep Mehta observed, "Prima facie, we are of the view that this is a fit case to initiate proceedings against the appellant for civil and criminal contempt." 

Accordingly, the bench issued notice to the appellant named Lavu Namdev Toraskar, asking him to be personally present before the Court on January 8, 2024.

The appeal was filed challenging the order dated 6.5.2022 of the National Green Tribunal, Western Zone that upheld the decision of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (Respondent No.1) to demolish the appellant's alleged illegal structures (including the construction of a Restaurant, Ground floor, apartment on 1st and 2nd floor) and to restore the land to its original condition, 30 days from the receipt of the said order.

The appellant challenged the said NGT order before the Apex Court, with one of the main grounds being that the order by Respondent No. 1 was passed without giving any heed to the pending application for regularization filed by the contemnor.

Given the same, the appellant had given an unconditional undertaking before the court on August 18, 2023, to remove the subject structure if his pending application for regularization is rejected. The application subsequently came to be rejected on September 15.

The Court took serious note of the fact that despite the rejection, instead of complying with the undertaking, the appellant addressed a letter to the President of India making a grievance that the Court is likely to dismiss the present appeal. In doing so, he suppressed the facts about his undertaking and chose not to disclose the various orders passed by this court.

The bench observed that newspaper publicity was also given at the instance of the appellant to the office memorandum issued by the Government of India based on the letter written to the President of India.  

When the appellant pressed an application to withdraw the present appeal, the Court observed that “The intention of filing the application for withdrawal is obvious that the appellant wants to back out from the undertaking given to this Court.”

The Court was of a prima facie view to initiate both civil and criminal contempt proceedings against the Contemnor who shall personally remain present on the relisted date of January 8, 2024.

The bench additionally stated, that “It will be open for the first respondent to address a letter to the office of the Hon'ble President of India and all other authorities to whom the Memorandum issued on the basis of the complaint made by the appellant to the Hon'ble President of India inviting the attention of the said offices to the orders passed by this Court from time to time and the unconditional undertaking given by the appellant.”

Case Details : LAVU NAMDEV TORASKAR v. GOA COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY & ORS. Civil Appeal No(s). 4294/2022

Counsel for Appellant: Mr. Prashant Sivarajan with D Kumanan AoR, Mr. Tushar Saigal,Adv. Ms. Meenakshi S. Adv.

Counsel for Respondent No.1(GCZMA)  - Mr. Surjendu Shankar Das, AoR standing counsel for Goa with Mr. Anand Murthi Rao, Adv.

Counsel for Respondent Nos.2 and 3(original complainants) - Mr. Salvador Santosh Rebello, AoR, Mr. Raghav Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shivangi Singhal, Adv. Mr. Ankit Kumar, Adv. Mr. Deepanshu Raj, Adv.

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