"Accidental or unintentional disobedience is not sufficient to justify one for holding guilty of contempt," a Bench of Justices JM Panchal and Gyan Sudha Mishra held in their judgement.
Giving a message to the judiciary, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled on Friday that unintentional disobedience of court orders does not amount to contempt.
“Accidental or unintentional disobedience is not sufficient to justify holding one guilty of contempt,” justices JM Panchal and Gyan Sudha Mishra held.
“It is further relevant to bear in mind that the settled law that casual or accidental or unintentional acts of disobedience in circumstances which negate any suggestion of contumacy would amount to contempt is theory only and does not render the contemnor liable to punishment,” the court said and quashed contempt proceedings against Dinesh Kumar Gupta, deputy registrar (judicial) of the Rajasthan high court.
Gupta had questioned the proceedings initiated against him by a high court judge on December 8, 2006, for an alleged contempt committed by his predecessor in 2001 in relation to an order passed by the judge on March 22 that year.
The high court had initiated the proceedings saying the order for initiating an inquiry against Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal judge SK Bansal was sought to be scuttled by the registry.
Upholding Gupta’s appeal, justice Sudha, who wrote the SC judgment, said in the relevant period of the order passed by the high court, he was not the deputy registrar (judicial) and had assumed office more than four years later.
The apex court said the single judge had inferred and assumed erroneously that Gupta had the intention to obstruct administration of justice by being instrumental in ensuring non-implementation of his order.
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