Contempt of court: Litigant gets 3-month jail term, 2,000 fine

Ahmedabad: In the second such incident in the history of Gujarat high court, a division bench has punished and awarded jail term to a litigant for contempt of court.
A bench headed by Justice Jayant Patel sentenced a litigant B M Patel to imprisonment for three months and seven days and slapped penalty of Rs 2,000 on him for making derogatory remarks about courts and judiciary.
As per the case details, Ramesh Rawal, a member of Dhruv Credit Cooperative Society, took a loan of Rs 60,000, but could not pay the money back on time. Following non-payment of the amount, the credit society approached the concerned tribunal and obtained order to seal the property that was mortgaged.
Meanwhile, Rawal approached the high court, which ordered removal of the seal. As Patel was an office bearer of the credit society he filed a review petition against the court order.
During the proceedings of this review petition and pendency of the case, Patel made wild allegations against the court, which was considered contempt of court and proceedings were initiated against him.
After hearing the case, a division bench sent him to jail last week when he appeared before the court.
A charge sheet was framed against Patel and finally on Wednesday the bench pronounced quantum of punishment for Patel for his offence.
Earlier, in late 1990s, one litigant was prosecuted and punished for contempt of court by circulating leaflets in the court premise for making disparaging remarks about the judiciary and courts.