ORDER :- Shankar Shukla, plaintiff opposite party filed a suit for permanent injunction restraining the applicants from changing the nature of the land in suit and for possession. An application for an interim injunction under Order 39, Rule 2, Civil Procedure Code was also made. The trial Court granted the injunction and directed that the status quo shall be maintained. During the pendency of the injunction the defendant-applicants disobeyed the injunction. An application under Order 39, R.2-A as amended by this Court was then moved by the opposite party for taking action against the defendant-applicants for the disobedience of the injunction. The trial Court ordered the detention of the applicants in Civil prison for a period of 20 days. Against the order of the learned Munsif an appeal was filed by the applicants. The learned Civil Judge who heard the appeal dismissed the appeal and confirmed the order of the trial Court, hence this revision.

2. Learned Counsel for the applicant has contended that under Order 39, Rule 2-A it was the duty of the Court to order attachment of the property for breach of an injunction order and the order of detention in civil prison without the substantive punishment of attachment of the property was bad in law. Order 39, Rule 2(1) of the Civil Procedure Code empowers the Court to issue an injunction in certain cases. It is in these words:-

"In any suit for restraining the defendant from committing a breach of contract or other injury of any kind, whether compensation is claimed in the suit or not, the plaintiff may, at any time after the commencement of the suit, and either before or after judgment, apply to the Court for a temporary injunction to restrain the defendant from committing the breach of contract or injury complained of, or any breach of contract or injury of a like kind arising out of the same contract or relating to the same property or right."

Order 39, Rule 2-A provides for punishment in case of disobedience of an injunction and reads thus:

"2-A. In the case of disobedience to an injunction issued under Rule 1 or Rule 2 sub-clause (2) or of breach of any terms of any such injunction, the Court in which the suit is proceeding may order the property of the person, guilty of such disobedience or breach, to be attached and may also order such person to be detained in the civil prison for a term not exceeding six months unless in the meantime the Court directs his release".

The language of Rule 2-A no doubt is misleading, but it cannot be said that in every type of breach of an injunction it is imperative on the Court to attach the property also. Attachment is effected to ensure award of compensation whereas detention in civil prison checks the infringement and punishes the person committing a breach. The nature of punishment will depend on the nature of breach. The violation of an injunction is a civil wrong and it is discretionary with the Court not to award any punishment when the breach is a minor breach or where the breach has not been the result of deliberate action. In a case where the breach is a continuing one and further disobedience is sought to be stopped, attachment of the property may be an appropriate remedy. But where the breach is a single completed breach, punishment by detention in civil prison alone will not be an inappropriate order.

In Thazath Suppi v. Alabi Kunhi Koya, AIR 1917 Mad 448, it was laid down that:- "A Court can, in its discretion, order either arrest or attachment of property and is not bound in the first instance to attach property and then only order imprisonment."

While considering the law in England it was remarked that:

"In England the usual order in cases of disobedience of an injunction by natural persons is attachment of the person or committal; while sequestration is the usual order passed in case of disobedience by Corporation."

Similarly, in Mowazzam Ali Khan v. Shebash Chandra, AIR 1927 Cal 598, the Calcutta High Court disapproved the interpretat

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