JUDGMENT

B.L. HANSARIA, J.- The stream of administration of justice has to remain unpolluted so that purity of courts atmosphere may give vitality to all the organs of the State. Polluters of judicial firmament are, therefore, required to be well taken care of to maintain the sublimity of courts environment; so also to enable it to administer justice fairly and to the satisfaction of all concerned.

2. Anyone who takes recourse to fraud, deflects the course of judicial proceedings; or if anything is done with oblique motive, the same interferes with the administration of justice. Such persons are required to be properly dealt with, not only to punish them for the wrong done, but also to deter others from indulging in similar acts which shake the faith of people in the system of administration of justice.

3. These prefatory remarks well project the importance of the point under consideration in this suo motu contempt action taken against respondent Anil Kumar for his having filed a fabricated document to oppose the prayer of his wife seeking transfer of a matrimonial proceeding from Delhi to Unnao. It shall be first required to be seen whether Anil did file a fabricated document and then we shall address ourselves as to whether filing of a forged document with intention to defraud amounts to contempt of court, as this expression has been defined in Section 2 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 (the Act).

4. Insofar as the first aspect is concerned, we entertain no doubt, as the case put by Anil contemner in his show-cause that the Experience Certificate dated 4-3-1993 purportedly from the Principal, V.S.S.M. Inter College, Moti Nagar, Unnao, had been signed by Khem Chandra, the Principal, is not acceptable on the face of the affidavit of the Principal himself, according to whom, the certificate is a "forged and fabricated document". The averments in the show-cause filed by Anil, after issuance of contempt notice, that he had contacted one A.K. Mathur, working as Additional General Manager in Ordnance Factory at Kanpur, who in turn spoke to one V.K. Upadhyay, Manager of the Armapur Gas Agency at Kanpur, who ultimately obtained the certificate, have nothing to commend inasmuch as the contemner has not been successful, despite opportunity naving been given, to produce any supporting material either from Shri Mathur or Shri Upadhyay. The further statement in the show-cause that three other teachers of the College used to sign in the name and as Khem Chandra and that Shri Khem Chandra, the Principal himself, signed in different styles has really made the matter worse. These averments made in the show-cause do not merit acceptance and we entertain no doubt that Anil had filed a forged and fabricated document to resist the prayer of his wife to get the matrimonial proceeding transferred on the ground of her poverty i.e. it was done with an oblique motive.

5. The real question is whether filing of the aforesaid forged and fabricated document amounts to contempt. According to Shri Ganguli, appearing for Anil Kumar, this does not. Let it be seen whether the contention advanced by Shri Ganguli is tenable.

6. In Section 2(a) of the Act "contempt of court" has been said to mean civil contempt or criminal contempt. The latter expression has been defined in Section 2(c) to mean the publication of a matter which, inter alia, interferes or tends to interfere with due course of any judicial proceeding, or interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice.

7. There being no decision of this Court (or for that matter of any High Court) to our knowledge on this point, the same is required to be examined as a matter of first principle. Contempt jurisdiction has been conferred on superior courts not only to preserve the majesty of law by taking appropriate action against one howsoever high he may be, if he violates courts order, but also to keep the stream of justice clear and pure (which was highlighted