JIWANI KUMARI PAREKHversusSATYABRATA CHAKRAVORTY, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE WEST BENGAL HANDICRAFT DEVELOPMENT CORPN. LTD.

                 JIWANI KUMAR! PAREKH
A
                           v.
     SATYABRATA CHAKRAVORTY, MANAGING DIRECTOR
        AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE WEST BENGAL
          HANDICRAFT DEVELOPMENT CORPN. LTD.

B                             OCTOBER JO, 1990

                  [M.H. KANIA AND R.M. SAHA!, JJ.]

         Contempt of Courts Act, 197 I: S. 2(b)-Contempt-Committal
    for-Wilful or deliberate disobedience of Court's orders-Necessity for.
c         By its order dated January 16, 1990 in the writ petition, the Court
    had directed respondent No. 4 to hand over possession of the premises
    requisitioned under the West Bengal Premises Requisition and Coi•trol
    (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1947, within nine weeks subject to their
    obtaining any order from the High Court or acquiring any independent
D   right within that period to retain possession.

          In the meantime, the Land Acquisition (West.Bengal Amendment)
    Act, 1986, which inserted s. 49A in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 as
    applicable to the State, came into force on February 14, 1990 permit•
    ting acqusition of a part of a house. A week thereafter the State Govern- .
E   ment initiated acquisition _process in respect of the said premises. Notifi-
    cations under ss. 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act were issued, and
    the Land Acquisition Collector authorised to take possession under
    s. 17(1) of the Act. However, on March 20, 1990 in a writ challenging
    the validity of the acquisition proceedings the High Court directed the
    status quo to be maintained r'garding possession.
F
          In this contempt petition, the petitioner alleged that the respon~
    dent had deliberately failed to hand over possession in terms of the
    order dated January 16, 1990. The acquisition was also assailed as
    being patently bad in law.

G         HELD: 1. Before a party can be committed for contempt, there
    must be a wilful or deliberate disobedience of the orders of the Court ..
    In the instant case, no such wilful or deliberate or reckless disobedience
    of the order dated January 16, 1990 has been committed by the respon-
    dent to the contempt petition. [249F] -

H         2. The question whether the acquisition is valid or not is pending

                                        246
            J.K. PAREKH v. S. CHAKRAVORTY [KANIA, J.)              247

for decision in the High Court. In case the petitioner succeeds the
                                                                          A
respondent would have remained in possession of the said premises for
a long time after they should have handed-over the possession. They
are, therefore, directed to deposit an amount of Rs.10,000 per month
commencing from 1st October, 1990 in the Court in addition to
Rs.15,000 per month they are already paying under the earlier
directions. [250A-C)                                                      B

      CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Contempt Petition No.
71 of 1990.
                                  AND
      Interlocutory Application No. I of 1990.
                                                                          c
                                   IN
      Writ Petition (Civil) No. l 1222 of 1983.

      (Under Article 32 of the Constitution oflndia).
                                                                          D·
      Shanti Bhushan, Bashant Bhushan, Bohla Prasad Singh for the
Petitioner.

      Kapil Sibal, Additional Solicitor General, Ashok H. Desai,
Solicitor General, Tapas Roy, Ratin Das and D.K. Sinha for the
Respondent.                                                               E

      The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

      KANIA, J. Seth Mann al al Surana Memorial Trust is the owner
of a building situate at 7/10, Lindsay Street, Calcutta, one of the
busiest streets in Calcutta where the New Market is situated. The         F
petitioner is the lessee of the said building from the said Trust. On
February 25, 1958, a portion of the ground-floor premises in the said
building admeasuring 4198 Sq. ft. (referred to hereinafter as "the said
premises") was requisitioned by the Government o(West Bengal
under the West Bengal Premises Requisition and Control (Temporary
Provisions) Act, 1947, (hereinafter referred to as "the West Bengal       G
Act"). The purpose for which the said premises were requisitioned
was establishing the main showroom of West Bengal Handicraft
Development Corporation Limited, a West Bengal Government
Undertaking. The said show room is called "Manjusha" and has
become a landmark in Calcutta. In H.D. Vora v. State of Maharashtra
and Others, [ 1984) 2 SCC 337 this Court held that the provisions for     H
    248         SUPREME COURT REPORTS                [1990] Supp. 2 S.C.R.

A   requisition could be resorted to only where premises were required for
    a temporary purpose but not where they were required for a per-
    manent purpose. If permises were required for a permanent purpose,
    they have to be acquired in accordance with law. Following upon this
    decision, the petitioner filed the aforesaid Writ Petition No. 11222 of
    1983 in this Court praying for a mandatory order directing that the
    premises should be derequisitioned and handed over to the petitioner.
    Certain interim applications were made in this Court and orders were
    passed thereon to which it is not necessary to refer in this Judgment.

          By an order dated January 16, 1990, certain directions were
    given to respondent No. 4 in the writ petition. The relevant portion of
    the said order runs as follows:
c
                "In view of the earlier orders, we direct respondent No. 4 to
                hand over the possession of the premises in question to the
                petitioner within nine weeks from today subject to their
                obtaining any order from the Calcutta High Court in the
D               appeal pending in that Court against the decision of a
                learned Single Judge in W.P. No. 2063 of 1987 or acquiring
                any independent right to retain possession of the suit pre-
                mises within that period.

          It is contended by Shri Shanti Bhushan, learned counsel for the
E   petitioner that as the respondents have not succeeded in obtaining any
    order from the Calcutta High Court in the said appeal or in acquiring
    any independent right to retain possession of the said premises within
    the period of nine weeks from January 16, 1990, as set out in the said
    order, they were bound to hand over the possession of the said pre-
    mises to the petitioner and have committed contempt as they have
F   deliberately fililtrd to do so.

          We find that it is not possible to accept the submission set out
    hereinabove. On February 21, 1990, the Government of West Bengal
    issued a notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act as
    applicable to the State of West ·Bengal, declaring its intention to
G   acquire the said premises. On February 27, 1990, the said.declaration
    was duly published. By the beginning of March 1990 the declaration
    under section 6 of the Lai:d Acquisition Act in respect of the said
    premises was duly made and published and on !st of M,arch 1990 the
    Government of West Bengal authorised the First Land Acquisition
    Collector to take possession of the said premises u11der seftion 17( I) of
H   the Land Acquisition Act. Public notices were given op 9th March,
             J.K. PAREKH v. S. CHAKRAVORTY [KANIA, J.]                249

 1990. A few days later, the trustees of the said trust which owned the
said building filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court challeng-     A
ing the validity of the acquisition proceedings in respect of the said
premises which had been initiated consequent upon the amendment of
the Land Acquisition Act as applicable to the State of West Bengal
and on 20th March, 1990, the Calcutta High Court directed the status
quo to be maintained regarding possession.               '                   B

      It is clear that unless the said order dated March 20, 1990, is
vacated, it is not possible for the respondents to proceed with the
acquisition and acquire title to the premises. The contention of the
learned counsel for the petitioner is that the acquisition is patently bad
in law as it is not open to the Government to acquire the said premises
on the ground-floor of the said building without acquiring the cor-          C
responding area on the upper floors. It was submitted by him that such
acquisition would be clearly bad in law in spite of the amendment
carried out to· the provisions of Land Acquisition Act as applicable to
the State of West Bengal by the insertion of Section 49 A therein by
Land Acquisition (West Bengal Amendment) Act, 1986, which came               o
into force on February 14, 1990, after obtaining the consent of the
President of India. Section 49A permits acquisition of a part of a
house. In our view, the question whether the acquisition is valid or not
is pending· for decision in the Calcutta High Court in the said writ
petition filed by the said trust as owner of the building challenging the
validity of the said amendment.                                              E

       In our opinion, before a party can be committed for contempt,
there must be a wilful or deliberate disobedience of the orders of the
Court. In the present case, we do not find that any such wilful or
deliberate or reckless disobedience of our order dated January 16,
1990, has been committed by the respondent to the contempt petition.         F
Hence, the contempt petiton is dismissed. There will be no order as to
costs.

      We hope that the Calcutta High Court will be able to dispose of
the said writ petition challenging the validity of the said amendment as
early as possible.                                                           G

      Interlocutory Application No. I of 1990 in writ petition No.
11222 of 1983 is !lot pressed and is allowed to be withdrawn with
liberty to renew the same if any ~ccasion arises.

      Although we are of the view that the respondent has not commit-        H
    250         SUPREME COURT REPORTS               [1990] Supp. 2 S.C.R.

A   ted contempt, we do realise tliat in case the petitioner succeeds in the
    writ petition, the respondent would have remained in possession of the
    said premises for a long time after they should have handed over the
    possession of the same to the petitioner. We find that the respondent
    has already been directed to pay compensation for the use of the said
    premises at the rate of Rs. 15,000 per month by an order of this Court
B
    passed over two years earlier. We direct that the respondent shall
    deposit, in addition, an amount of Rs. I0,000 per month commencing
    from !st October, 1990, in the Court, the first of such deposits to be
    made on or before 20th October, 1990, and deposits for each succeed-
    ing month to be made by 15th day of each succeeding month. The
    amounts deposited shall be invested by the Registrar-General at suit-
c   able intervals in a nationalised bank in fixed deposit after consulting
    the parties.

    P.S.S.
                     I
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