“11. The contempt jurisdiction conferred on to the law courts
power to punish an offender for his wilful
disobedience/contumacious conduct or obstruction to the
majesty of law, for the reason that respect and authority
commanded by the courts of law are the greatest guarantee to an
ordinary citizen that his rights shall be protected and the entire
democratic fabric of the society 5 (2014) 16 SCC 204 18 will
crumble down if the respect of the judiciary is undermined.
Undoubtedly, the contempt jurisdiction is a powerful weapon in
the hands of the courts of law but that by itself operates as a
string of caution and unless, thus, otherwise satisfied beyond
reasonable doubt, it would neither be fair nor reasonable for the
law courts to exercise jurisdiction under the Act. The
proceedings are quasi criminal in nature, and therefore, standard
of proof required in these proceedings is beyond all reasonable
doubt. It would rather be hazardous to impose sentence for
contempt on the authorities in exercise of the contempt
jurisdiction on mere probabilities. (Vide V.G. Nigam v. Kedar
Nath Gupta, (1992) 4 SCC 697, Chhotu Ram v. Urvashi Gulati,
(2001) 7 SCC 530, Anil Ratan Sarkar v. Hirak Ghosh, (2002) 4
SCC 21, Bank of Baroda v. Sadruddin Hasan Daya, (2004) 1
SCC 360, Sahdeo v. State of U.P., (2010) 3 SCC 705 and
National Fertilizers Ltd. v. Tuncay Alankus, (2013) 9 SCC 600.
PNR,J
CC No.353 of 2021 22
Union of India). The wilful element is an indispensable requirement to
bring home the charge within the meaning of the Act. (Anil Ratan Sarkar
v. Hirak Ghosh). Wilful means an act or omission which is done
voluntarily and with the specific intent to do something the law forbids
or with the specific intent to fail to do something the law requires to be
done, that is to say, with the purpose of either disobeying or disregarding
the law.
24. Reverting to the decision of this Court in Anil Ratan
Sarkar (supra), it was a case in which crystalclear direction was
33
given to the management to treat the concerned employees at par
with another set of specified employees. Further, despite six
rounds of litigation, the management kept on taking defence of
its bona fide understanding of the situation, which came to be
deprecated. Had it been a case of clear direction by the Tribunal,
the High Court or this Court, and an attempt was made to
interpret, or so to say, misinterpret, such direction, to regularise
the employees concerned under the Departmental Labour
System, and if such direction was not to be complied with by the
respondent Corporation, the situation could have been viewed
differently being a contempt action. In the present case, it is
not a moonshine defence as was the finding recorded in the
reported decision.
31. From the above decision, it is clear that the
punishing the person for contempt of Court is indeed
drastic step and normally such action should not be
taken.