Subordinate courts do not have jurisdiction to initiate contempt proceedings: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court recently held that subordinate courts cannot assume jurisdiction to exercise the power to initiate contempt of court cases [ICICI Bank v Rashmi Sharma]..The order passed by Justice Amit Bansal also stated that subordinate courts can only make a reference to the High Court for initiating contempt proceedings, as per the scheme of the Contempt of Courts Act."Subordinate courts cannot assume jurisdiction and issue show cause notice as to why contempt proceedings be not initiated. A subordinate court can only make a reference to the High Court for initiating contempt proceedings. Therefore, the impugned order is clearly in excess of the jurisdiction vested with the Commercial Court," the single-judge held..The defendant had availed a car loan from the plaintiff ICICI Bank. When he defaulted on the payments, the bank sent him a notice recalling the loan facility.The bank filed a suit for recovery against the defendant, after which summons were issued to him by the commercial court. The bank then took steps to effect service of the summons on the defendant. Additionally, the bank sent a photograph of the summons issued by the commercial court to the defendant through WhatsApp.On the next date of hearing, the commercial court passed an order issuing a show cause notice to the bank as to why criminal contempt proceedings be not initiated against it. This prompted the bank to approach the High Court seeking quashing of this order..Before the High Court, the bank contended that a photocopy of the summons was sent through WhatsApp only to ensure the presence of the defendants before the commercial court on the next date of hearing. It was also pointed out that the Supreme Court itself, during the period of COVID-19 lockdown last year, had directed service to be affected through various electronic means including WhatsApp..The Court held that there was no reason for the commercial court to issue the show cause notice, noting,"Just because the photograph of the summons were sent by the plaintiff to the defendant through WhatsApp cannot amount to overreaching the judicial system or running a parallel system with the judicial system."The Court noted that the bank had filed process fee and taken steps for issuance of regular summons to the defendant through the ordinary process as well as speed post to ensure the appearance of the defendant before the commercial court. There was nothing malafide in the same, and it cannot be said that that was an attempt to overreach the judicial system, the Court held."It was not that the plaintiff had sought to send the summons through WhatsApp in substitution of the ordinary service to the defendant. It was only sent as a secondary measure to ensure the presence of the defendant on the next date. Therefore, Commercial Court has completely gone overboard in issuing notice for initiating contempt proceedings," the order stated..It was also held that in any case, the commercial court did not have the jurisdiction to initiate contempt proceedings against the bank. With these observations, the lower court order was set aside to the extent of issuing show cause notice to the bank..Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan and Advocates Ripudaman Bhardwaj, Deepak Kaushik and Sanjeev Bakshi appeared for ICICI Bank..[Read order]