* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % Judgment reserved on :06 December 2023 Judgment pronounced on :19 December 2023 + CONT.CAS(C) 838/2023 SH. GOPAL GUPTA ..... Petitioner Through: Mr. Madhav Khurana, Mr. Akash Verma, Ms. Isha Arora and Ms. Jyoti Taneja, Advs.

versus SH. SUNIL KUMAR SINHA & ORS. ..... Respondents Through: Mr. Zoheb Hossain and Mr. Harpreet Singh, Sr. Standing Counsels with Mr. Vivek Gurnani, Mr.

Kavish Garach and Ms.

Suhani Mathur, Adv. for DRI CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DHARMESH SHARMA

J U D G M E N T

DHARMESH SHARMA, J.

1. This order shall decide a contempt petition filed under Section 2(b) read with Section 11 & 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 19712 on behalf of the petitioner alleging continuous, repeated, deliberate and wilful disobedience by the respondents to the orders/directions 1 Written submissions filed on behalf of petitioner on 07.12.2023 and written submissions filed on

behalf of respondents on 09.12.2023.

2 CC Act

Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:PRAMOD dated 12.04.2021 passed by this Court in W.P.(C). 821/2001, and in particular violating the stay order granted by this Court against launching of any kind of civil as well criminal prosecution with respect to the subject matter.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND:

2. The instant round of litigation between the parties emanates from a long history of multiple proceedings initiated at the behest of the parties against one another. The genesis of the controversy lies in the action taken by the Customs/Directorate of Revenue Intelligence3 on 24.04.2019 when a colleague of the petitioner, namely Mr. Amit Pal Singh was intercepted at the Exit Gate of the Red Channel at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, for being found in possession of unsold gold jewellery brought back from a Trade Exhibition in a foreign country weighing about 51172 grams. The Customs initiated proceedings under Section 11 and 46 and further search and seizure under Sections 100 and 102 of Chapter XIII of the Customs Act, 1962, [Act]. The gold jewellery besides other documents was seized as per the Panchnama done on 24/25.04.2019 under Section 110 of the Act. Accordingly, the DRI conducted search and seizures not only at the residential premises of the petitioner but also conducted search at the office premises i.e., M/s Its My Name Pvt. Ltd⁵, situated at Safdarjung, New Delhi. Suffice to point out that the petitioner as also few others involved in the business affairs of IMNPL were arrested. Evidently, the DRI foisted a case on the petitioner and others initially

3 DRI

Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:PRAMOD

alleging, re-importing huge quantity of gold jewellery items fraudulently without payment of the customs duty.

3. Shorn of unnecessary details about the allegations in the proceedings leading to arrest, remand and eventually the orders leading to passing of bail orders by the competent Courts as also the allegations levelled at the behest of petitioner and others associated with IMNPL, it is sufficient to highlight the fact that the petitioner has alleged continuous harassment, abuse and torture at the hands of the respondents/DRI officials besides being treated in an inhuman manner during the investigation resulting in a gross violation of the laws. It is also pertinent to mention that during the hearings on the applications moved by the petitioner as also others involved with the affairs of the IMNPL, evidently the DRI in its written submissions before the Court concerned changed its stand against the petitioner & others including the company, to the effect that the case against them was not one of evasion of custom duty but was of bringing prohibited goods i.e. smuggling in gold articles prohibited vide Section 111, 112 and 113 of the Act.

4. The sequence of events explained by the learned counsel for the petitioner during the course of arguments and in the written submissions filed by him is that, the petitioner along with Shri Rahul Gupta and Smt. Purnima Gupta, [Direc