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HC comes down heavily on litigant evading notice with name change trick
A division bench comprising Justice T Raja and D Bharatha Chakravarthy successfully busted the drama enacted by 71-year-old PR Gopal, a resident of Chennai, while he was lying before the court.
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Chennai
In a case having uncanny similarities with the Tamil hit Naan Avan Illai, the Madras High Court came down heavily on a litigant who, in order to avoid a contempt notice, pretended to be someone else.
A division bench comprising Justice T Raja and D Bharatha Chakravarthy successfully busted the drama enacted by 71-year-old PR Gopal, a resident of Chennai, while he was lying before the court.
The court had earlier served contempt notice to Gopal for non-compliance with the court order directing him to return the money to a woman for not completing the sale deed of his property. Everytime an order came, the court got back a reply stating Gopal’s house was locked. Later, a bailiff was sent to serve the court’s notice. However, he too informed the court that Gopal’s house was locked. Convinced of his falsehood, the court then ordered Seven Wells Police Inspector to secure the contemnor and produce him before the court.
“When the contemnor claimed that his name was Abraham Gopal, the petitioner’s counsel rejected that. Further, the petitioner wanted to verify his PAN card signature and the court proceeded to checking his IDs. It was found that the birth date of Gopal and Abraham Gopal was mentioned as 8.02.1951. The signature in Gopal’s plaint was also tallied with the signature of Abraham Rajagopal’s PAN card,” the bench stated.
The judges further ordered Gopal’s counsel C Venkatesalu to appear before the court to verify whether the person who was produced before the court was Gopal or not. The advocate also agreed that the person was Gopal and not Abraham Rajagopal.
Age, ailments come to aid of Chennai resident who tried to cheat court
The Madras High Court, busting the drama enacted by 71-year-old PR Gopal, a resident of Chennai, came down heavily on a litigant who, to avoid a contempt notice, pretended to be someone else.
The court, as per the facts and circumstances, ordered the contemnor to pay the pending due of Rs 2,81,212 to Rajeswari. On December 20, Gopal’s son has paid the amount to the petitioner. Considering the age and ailments of the contemnor, the judges warned him not to indulge in such acts in the future and let him go, according to Sunil Kumar, counsel for the contempt petitioner.
In 1994, Rajeswari has entered into a sale deed with Gopal to purchase his property located at Konthithope, Chennai. Gopal demanded Rs 10 lakh for the property and received Rs 2.15 lakh as advance. Though the petitioner was ready to pay the remaining amount, Gopal was not ready to complete the sale deed.
Therefore, Rajeswari approached the Madras HC and got a verdict in favor of her in 1996 that allowed her to take possession of the property. Gopal moved the HC against the single judge’s order. A division bench passed a reverse judgment in 2008 asking the Gopal to return the money with 9 percent interest to Rajeswari and take possession of his property from Rajeswari.
Besides, Rajeswari made a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Madras HC division bench’s order, and the same was rejected. Though the SC upheld the HC order, Gopal did not return the money. Therefore, Rajeswari moved a contempt petition before the High Court.
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