Manipur High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Ramalingam Sudhakar, CJ, dismissed a contempt petition filed against the Sub-Deputy Collector, Sawombung (Imphal East).
The matter related to a property suit between the parties. The suit was decreed by the learned Civil Judge against the defendants (petitioners herein), against which they preferred an appeal before the learned District Judge. The appeal was admitted; however, no interim order was passed. The plaintiffs moved to Sub-Deputy Collector for mutation of revenue records based on the decree passed. Recording that there was no stay on the decree passed by the Civil Judge, the Sub-Deputy Collector allowed the amendment to revenue records. The defendants alleged that the Sub-Deputy Collector committed contempt in terms of Section 2(b) of Contempt of Court Act 1971.
The High Court perused the record and found no merit in the contentions put forth by the defendants. The Court categorically observed, “in absence of stay or injunction in the appeal, the party who succeeds in the litigation should be entitled to enjoy the fruits of the decree unless there is a restraint order by the appellate forum”. The Court found that there was no stay order against the decree passed by the Civil Judge. As such, the Sub-Deputy Collector did not disobey any order of the Court. In such circumstances, the Court held the contempt petition to be sans merit. The petition was accordingly dismissed. [Huidrom Ningolakpa Singh v. Lunguiba Thangal, 2018 SCC OnLine Mani 53, dated 02-06-2018]
