Before disposing of the appeal on these terms, the Division Bench also reiterated certain principles to be kept in mind before a court initiates contempt of court proceedings.
Summarising Rule 5 of Chapter XXXV-E of the Allahabad High Court Rules, 1952, the Bench noted that the following pre-requisites should be ensured while issuing notice in a contempt case:
(a) There has to be an order of a court or an undertaking before it;
(b) Such order should have been communicated to the alleged contemnor calling upon him to comply with the same;
(c) There has to be some action or inaction or undertaking which may amount to willful disobedience or flouting of such order or undertaking;
(d) There have to be allegations in the contempt petition or in an application for impleadment mentioning the existence of aforesaid jurisdictional facts/ prerequisites;
(e) The contempt court has to arrive at a prima facie satisfaction about the existence of these jurisdictional facts/ prerequisites, making out a prima facie case of contempt of court.
Further, the Court emphasized that before impleading any party to a contempt case, notice should first be issued to the alleged contemnors. This is so that they may inform the contempt court about the correct facts. This is the general procedure, the Court noted, unless a prima facie case of contempt has been made out from the facts or documents on record.
Source: Barandbench
