The Delhi High Court recently handed down a one-month simple imprisonment sentence to a woman for breaching the terms of a divorce settlement agreement with her husband and disregarding commitments made to a family court.
In a ruling on August 9, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora found the woman in contempt of court and imposed a ₹2000 fine on her.
“In these circumstances, the Court finds that the Respondent is deliberately violating the settlement agreement and breaching the undertakings, and therefore, the Court deems the Respondent in contempt under Section 2(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The Respondent has not offered any apology in her response and has, on the contrary, boldly stated that she is not bound by the settlement agreement and the undertakings made to the Court,” the Court documented.
The Court determined that a ₹2,000 fine would not adequately serve justice.
The Court deemed a jail term necessary, as the woman intentionally and defiantly disobeyed the commitment given to the Family Court, with the intention of increasing her financial settlement with her estranged husband.
The judge noted that this disobedience persisted despite multiple opportunities given by the High Court to comply with the settlement terms. Consequently, the woman was sentenced to one month in jail.
Justice Arora, however, suspended the sentence for two weeks to allow the woman to rectify the contempt.
The Court clarified that the imprisonment penalty would be revoked if the woman offers an unconditional apology and adheres to the settlement agreement’s conditions.
The Court also warned that failing to do so would require the woman to surrender before the Court’s Registrar General on August 24 at 2.30 PM.
In such an event, the Registrar General has been instructed to take the necessary steps to transfer the woman to Central Jail, Tihar in New Delhi for her incarceration.
“The Respondent is directed to appear on 11.08.2023 before the Registrar General to provide a security bond of ₹50,000/- and a surety of the same amount for her surrender,” the Court added.
The case pertained to a contempt petition filed by a man against his estranged wife.
The man informed the Court that they got married in July 2015 but have lived separately since April 2017, with approximately 20 legal proceedings pending between them.
Eventually, the couple reached a settlement agreement, and on September 14, 2022, they committed to abide by its terms and conditions.
Notably, the agreement stipulated that the husband would execute a gift deed for a Mumbai flat. The wife was to hand over a ₹9,91,408/- check to the husband to settle a loan account with HSBC Bank and procure original title deeds of specific property from the same bank.
However, disputes emerged between the parties over obtaining certain ancillary documents from a housing society where the property was located.
The wife insisted on obtaining these documents from the housing society, stating that she would not accept the gift deed’s execution without them.
The housing society’s managing committee, however, refused to provide any information or documents to either party until the society’s maintenance dues were cleared.
Meanwhile, the husband argued that, as per the agreement, the wife was responsible for paying these maintenance dues.
Therefore, he contended that the failure to execute the gift deed, even after finalization, amounted to a deliberate violation of the agreement’s terms and conditions.
After careful consideration, the High Court determined that the wife had reneged on the settlement agreement and found her in contempt.
Advocates Prabhjit Jauhar, Rosemary Raju, Gauri Rajput, and Ajunee Singh represented the husband (petitioner).
The wife’s legal representation consisted of Advocates Zeba Khair and Nikita Jain.