JUDGMENT :

R.N. Manjula, J.

(Heard through Video Conferencing)

(Prayer:- This Contempt Appeal is filed under Clause 15 of the Letter Patent, against the Order dated 16.06.2021 in Contempt Petition No.609 of 2020 passed by the Hon'ble Dr. Justice Anita Sumanth.)

This Contempt Appeal has been filed against the order of the learned single Judge dated 16.06.2021 in Contempt Petition No.609 of 2020 in which the appellants/contemnors have been directed to pay a sum of Rs.25,000/- to the Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai, by recording a finding that the act of contempt of Courts has been proved to be true.

2. Short facts:-

The respondent held a license to run an arrack shop at No.4, (O), Karuvadikuppam, Oulgaret Municipality (shop/shop in question) in the Union Territory of Puducherry from 2019. The license of the respondent was cancelled by 3rd appellant on 05.06.2020. After filing a statutory appeal before the 2nd appellant, the respondent filed a writ petition in WP.No.8986 of 2020 seeking directions. In the said writ petition, an order dated 10.07.2020 was passed by taking into note the fact that the hearing of the appeal was fixed on 16.07.2020, an order to maintain status quo was issued with a direction to dispose of the appeal before 31.07.2020. During the pendency of the status quo order, the third appellant issued an auction notification No.1821/DCE/TP/AUC/2020-21 on 25.07.2020, wherein, the shop of the respondent was also included in page No.571. So the respondent has filed a petition to take contempt action by alleging that the appellants have wantonly violated the order of status quo passed by the learned single Judge on 10.07.2020, by including her shop in the auction notification dated 25.07.2020. After hearing both the parties, the learned single Judge did not hold the appellants guilty of Contempt of Court but directed them to pay Rs.25,000/- to the Cancer Institute. The operative portion of the order passed by the learned single Judge in Contempt Petition No.609 of 2020 dated 16.06.2021 reads as under:-

“14.

......

19. The Contempt Petition is thus disposed putting the respondents to terms for admitted violation as recorded at paragraph 14 of this order. The respondents in the Contempt Petition are directed to pay a sum of Rs.25,000/- (Rupees twenty five thousand only) to the Cancer Institute, Adayar, Chennai within a period of four (4) weeks from today and file a memo of compliance before the Registry of the Court.”

3. Aggrieved over the said order, the Appellants/contemnors have filed this present Contempt Appeal.

4. Heard Mr. T.P. Manoharan, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. J. Kumaran, learned Additional Government Pleader (Puducherry) appearing for the appellants and Mrs. Pooja Jain, learned counsel for the respondent.

5. The learned Additional Government Pleader (Puducherry) for the appellants has submitted that the contemnors have utmost respect for the orders of the Court and they used to obey and comply the orders promptly; there was no intention on the part of the appellants to violate the order of status quo but the inclusion of the impugned shop in the auction notification dated 25.07.2020 was a mistake. It is further submitted that after coming to know of the mistake, a corrigendum was issued through a notification dated 31.07.2020 by removing the respondent's shop from the list of shops included therein and the same was also published in the Extraordinary Gazette of Puducherry dated 31.07.2020; since there was no act of wilful disobedience of the order of the Court, the order of the learned single Judge has to be set aside and this Contempt Appeal has to be allowed.

6. The learned counsel for the respondent/petitioner has submitted that the learned single Judge did not impose any fine and there is no punitive orders suffered by the appellants/contemnors; since the appellants/contemnors have not been given a