Karnataka High Court finds two guilty of contempt for filing multiple frivolous cases against Azim Premji

The Karnataka High Court on Friday found two accused guilty of contempt of court for filing multiple, frivolous cases against Wipro and its Chairman Azim Premji [Hasham Investment and Trading Company Pvt Ltd v. India Awake for Transparency Pvt Ltd]..A Bench of Justices B Veerappa and KS Hemalekha sentenced two representatives of India Awake for Transparency to two months of simple imprisonment and a fine of ₹2,000. The accused were also restrained from initiating any future litigation against Premji and his group of companies before any forum.“...the said accused persons have committed criminal contempt of court within the meaning of Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, punishable under Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, in the facts and circumstances of the case,” recorded the order..The Bench observed that the judiciary was the only temple worshipped by every citizen of the country, and that utmost care was needed to ensure that the temple didn’t crack on the inside.“We must remember that woodpeckers inside pose a larger threat than the storm outside.”.It remarked that in recent years, a trend of filing speculative litigation before High Courts and the Supreme Court had emerged, and that it was the Court’s duty to weed out such cases to protect genuine litigants as well precious judicial time..A Single Judge Bench of the Karnataka High Court had in February 2021 dismissed another petition filed by the accused against Azim Premji’s holdings with exemplary costs of ₹10 lakh after finding that the accused were indulging in “forum shopping”..In the present case, after framing of charges, counsel for the complainants submitted that not less than ten distinct proceedings were filed challenging the legality of the amalgamation of three Azim Premji Group companies with another group company, even though no outside shareholder or creditor was in any way affected.It was also brought to the Court’s attention that India Awake for Transparency was a shell company as it had no income, negligible expenditure, and did not even possess a bank account. One of the accused person’s impermissible “dual role” as an advocate and authorised signatory was also highlighted by the complainants..The accused argued that filing different petitions with different causes of action did not amount to abuse of process of law. Further, the accusations of “dual role” were completely denied.It was submitted that malafide contempt proceedings were initiated on behalf of the complainants in order to try and evade prosecution..The Bench, however, found that the second accused had been acting as an advocate as well as authorised representative of the company. Thus, the accusations of “dual role” were found to be true.“...it is clear that the 2nd Accused besides being the one who is representing the 1st accused before the Courts of Law and other forums as its Advocate, is also the authorized representative of the 1st Accused-Company to act on behalf of the 1st accused in the actions that are being brought by it as well as the one that are brought against it.”.On examination of the material before it, the Court concluded that the proceedings were filed in the name of a non-existent company challenging the legality of the amalgamation of three Azim Premji Group of companies with another group company and that the same was on “absolutely frivolous and absurd grounds.”.Finally, the Bench did not find the apology of the accused to be sincere, as no affidavit of unconditional apology was filed nor were proper words used to express their regret..With these findings, the Court found the two accused guilty of contempt and directed the Registrar to prepare a warrant of commitment and detention in respect of the accused and take action for them to undergo imprisonment..Senior Advocates Ganesh S and CV Nagesh along with Advocate Sandeep Huilgol appeared for the complainants.The accused were represented by Senior Advocate DR Ravishankar along with Advocate Shakeer Abbas M..In December last year, the Supreme Court had called for the speedy disposal of the contempt proceedings before the Karnataka High Court, while noting,"It appears that there is undoubtedly an endeavour to obfuscate proceedings before the Karnataka High Court and the matter is being dragged on unnecessarily to prevent the culmination of the same.".Contempt for frivolous cases against Azim Premji: Supreme Court issues directions for proceedings before Karnataka HC.[Read order]