IMPORTANT POINT
A party is guilty of civil contempt if there is willful disobedience to the writ of habeas corpus by misleading the Court by presenting a distorted version of facts not borne out by the record.

JUDGMENT

Desai, J- On Nov. 24, 1983, the Court by its judgment and order directed that a writ of hebeas corpus be issued. The operative portion of the order reads as under:

"Accordingly, this petition is allowed and we direct that a writ of habeas corpus be issued to the respondents 1, 2 and 4 commanding them to produce C. Daniel, retired Naik Subedar of Manipur Riffles and Headmaster of the Junior High School of Huining Village and C. Paul, Assistant Pastor of Huining Baptist Church, who were taken to Phungrei Camp by the jawans of 21st Sikh Regiment on March 10, 1982 before this Court on Dec. 12, 1983 and file the return."

The Registry issued the writ and served the same upon first respondent- Union of India, second respondent-Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and 4th respondent-commandant, 21st Sikh Regiment, Phungrei Camp. Pursuant to the writ, it was obligatory upon respondents 1, 2 and 4 to file the return and to produce C. Daniel and C. Paul. A return on affidavit by one Ajai Vikram Singh, Director, Ministry of Defence dated December 9, 1983 was produced in the Court on December 12. 1983 stating therein "that with all the will and the best efforts, the respondents are unable to produce S/Shri C. Danial and C. Paul for the reasons set out in the affidavit and crave for indulgence of the Hon'ble Court for their inability to produce the above-named individuals due to circumstances beyond their control." It was reiterated that C. Daniel and C. Paul were not in the custody or control of respondents 1, 2 and 4. To this return several affidavits and messages were annexed saying that the Army authorities conducted an extensive search for tracing C. Daniel and C. Paul but nothing fruitful has been achieved. One Surendra Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs had also filed the return stating that C. Daniel and C. Paul are neither in the custody nor control of respondent No. 2. It was stated that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI for short) have been directed to conduct enquiries to locate the aforementioned two persons and to intimate the result thereof. The matter was adjourned to enable the respondents to pursue their efforts. Nothing fruitful came up even though the matter was twice adjourned at the request of learned Attorney General who entered appearance on behalf of respondent Nos. 1,2 and 4. The writ petition was posted for further hearing and orders on April 19, 1984. On that day, a summary of enquiry made by CBI was submitted to the Court in which it was stated that the field enquiries made by the CBI and the efforts made to locate the two persons have yielded no results and it has not been possible to locate Sri Daniel and Sri Paul'. The report was submitted by the Dy. Inspector General of Police (S).

2. It is now necessary to deal with the failure of respondents J, 2 and 4 to file the return to the writ of habeas corpus. After a preliminary enquiry and after hearing the respondents and after negativing their contentions that Shri C. Dannel and Shri C. Paul were not seen last alive in the custody of the 4th respondent, the Court directed to issue a writ of habeas corpus. The writ of habeas corpus was, issued and was served on respondents 1, 2 and 4. In compliance with the mandatory direction contained in the writ of habeas corpus, the person to whom it is directed is under a legal obligation to produce the body of the person alleged to be unlawfully detained before the Court on the day specified and to make a formal return to the writ1 Such a writ has been issued and there has been failure to failure to produce the missing persons in respect of whom writ is issued and to file the return as mandated by law.

3. The next question therefore, is: what is the appropriate mode of enforcing obedience to a writ of habeas corpus?

4. The Contempt of Courts Act. 1971 defines 'contempt of court' in Section 2(a) to mean 'civil contempt or criminal contempt'. 'Civil contempt' is defined in Section 2(b) to mean 'wilfu