RAJESH BINDAL, J.

Leave granted.

2. This is another case in which an effort has been made to pollute the stream of administration of justice.

3. About three decades ago, this Court in Chandra Shashi v.

Anil Kumar Verma1 was faced with a situation where an attempt was made to deceive the Court and interfere with the administration of justice. The litigant was held to be guilty of contempt of court. It was 1 (1995) 1 SCC 421 Digitally signed by POOJA SHARMA Date: 2024.01.19 16:57:27 IST Reason:

Signature Not Verified a case in which husband had filed fabricated document to oppose the prayer of his wife seeking transfer of matrimonial proceedings.

Finding him guilty of contempt of court, he was sentenced to two weeks’ imprisonment by this Court. This Court observed as under:

"1.

The stream of administration of justice has to remain unpolluted so that purity of court's 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 court's 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.

* * *

14. The legal position thus is that if the publication be with intent to deceive the court or one made with an intention to defraud, the same would be contempt, as it would interfere with administration of justice. It would, in any case, tend to interfere with the same. This would definitely be so if a fabricated documents is filed with the aforesaid mens rea. In the case at hand the fabricated document was apparently to deceive the court; the intention to defraud is writ large.

Anil Kumar is, therefore, guilty of contempt."

4. In K.D. Sharma Vs. Steel Authority of India Limited and others2 it was observed by this Court:

"39.

If the primary object as highlighted in Kensington Income Tax Commrs., (1917) 1 KB 486 :

86 LJKB 257 : 116 LT 136 (CA) is kept in mind, an applicant who does not come with candid facts and "clean breast" cannot hold a writ of the court with "soiled hands". Suppression or concealment of material facts is not an advocacy. It is a jugglery, manipulation, manoeuvring or misrepresentation, which has no place in equitable and prerogative jurisdiction. If the applicant does not disclose all the material facts fairly and truly but states them in a distorted manner and misleads the court, the court has inherent power in order to protect itself and to prevent an abuse of its process to discharge the rule nisi and refuse to proceed further with the examination of the case on merits. If the court does not reject the petition on that ground, the court would be failing in its duty. In fact, such an applicant requires to be dealt with for contempt of court for abusing the process of the court."

[emphasis supplied]

2 (2008) 12 SCC 481

5. In Dalip Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh and others3, this Court noticed the progressive decline in the values of life and the conduct of the new creed of litigants, who are far away from truth. It was observed as under:

"1.

For many centuries Indian society cherished two basic values of life i.e. "satya" (truth) and "ahinsa" (non- violence). Mahavir, Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi guided the people to ingrain these values in their daily life. Truth constituted an integral part of the justice- delivery system which was in vogue in the pre- Independence era and the people used to feel proud to tell truth in the courts irrespective of the consequences.

However, post- Independence per