{"id":137210,"date":"1993-09-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1993-09-08T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/r-j-mehta-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-9-september-1993"},"modified":"2017-04-06T11:04:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T05:34:52","slug":"r-j-mehta-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-9-september-1993","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalindia.com\/judgments\/r-j-mehta-vs-state-of-maharashtra-on-9-september-1993","title":{"rendered":"R. J. Mehta vs State Of Maharashtra on 9 September, 1993"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"docsource_main\">Supreme Court of India<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_title\">R. J. Mehta vs State Of Maharashtra on 9 September, 1993<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_citations\">Equivalent citations: 1994 SCC,   Supl.  (2) 503<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_author\">Author: K J Reddy<\/div>\n<div class=\"doc_bench\">Bench: Reddy, K. Jayachandra (J)<\/div>\n<pre>           PETITIONER:\nR. J. MEHTA\n\n\tVs.\n\nRESPONDENT:\nSTATE OF MAHARASHTRA\n\nDATE OF JUDGMENT09\/09\/1993\n\nBENCH:\nREDDY, K. JAYACHANDRA (J)\nBENCH:\nREDDY, K. JAYACHANDRA (J)\nRAY, G.N. (J)\n\nCITATION:\n 1994 SCC  Supl.  (2) 503\n\n\nACT:\n\n\n\nHEADNOTE:\n\n\n\nJUDGMENT:\n<\/pre>\n<p>ORDER\n<\/p>\n<p>1.   Heard learned counsel for the parties.\n<\/p>\n<p>2.   The  appeal  arises under the Contempt of\tCourts\tAct.<br \/>\nThe contemnor is the appellant and he was found guilty under<br \/>\nSection\t 12  of\t the  Act and  sentenced  to  suffer  simple<br \/>\nimprisonment  till rising of the Court and to pay a fine  of<br \/>\nRs 500<br \/>\n<span class=\"hidden_text\">504<\/span><br \/>\nin  default  of payment of which to  further  suffer  simple<br \/>\nimprisonment for two weeks.\n<\/p>\n<p>3.The  case  is that the appellant who is a  trade  union<br \/>\nleader released a statement to the Press which was published<br \/>\nin  the\t Times of India making certain\tdisparaging  remarks<br \/>\nagainst the Industrial Labour Courts.  Notice was issued and<br \/>\nthe  Division Bench of the High Court in an elaborate  order<br \/>\nconsidered all the contentions raised and ultimately awarded<br \/>\nthe  conviction.  Questioning the same, the  present  appeal<br \/>\nhas  been filed.  It is urged before us that  the  appellant<br \/>\nfiled  an  apology  by way of an  affidavit  expressing\t his<br \/>\nregrets about the report mentioned in the papers and that he<br \/>\nintends\t to  unconditionally withdraw  the  allegations\t and<br \/>\ncharges made in the report and therefore in such a situation<br \/>\nthe  court  should have accepted the  unconditional  apology<br \/>\ninstead of convicting the appellant.  We are unable to agree<br \/>\nwith   the  above  submissions.\t  The  provisions   of\t the<br \/>\ndefinition  of criminal contempt are fully attracted and  in<br \/>\nthe circumstances the Court is not bound to accept  apology.<br \/>\nIt is well-settled that sometimes apology is not a weapon of<br \/>\ndefence\t to purge the guilt and under all  circumstances  it<br \/>\ncan   be  allowed  and\tto  be\tignored\t even\tin   special<br \/>\ncircumstances.\t  The  High  Court,  however,  taking\tinto<br \/>\nconsideration  all the circumstances awarded a very  lenient<br \/>\nsentence.   We\tsee no ground to interfere.  The  appeal  is<br \/>\ndismissed accordingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court of India R. J. Mehta vs State Of Maharashtra on 9 September, 1993 Equivalent citations: 1994 SCC, Supl. (2) 503 Author: K J Reddy Bench: Reddy, K. Jayachandra (J) PETITIONER: R. J. MEHTA Vs. RESPONDENT: STATE OF MAHARASHTRA DATE OF JUDGMENT09\/09\/1993 BENCH: REDDY, K. JAYACHANDRA (J) BENCH: REDDY, K. JAYACHANDRA (J) RAY, G.N. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supreme-court-of-india"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>R. J. 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