Contempt - Criminal Contempt for filing frivolous Writ Petition

Recently, the Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High Court in M/s Shiv Shakti Medical Society Vs Punjab National Bank suo moto initiated criminal contempt against the Contempnor for filing frivolous writ petition. In this case, Contempnor, initially invoked Article 227 of the Constitution of India by filing writ petition before the Single Judge. On suffering an order, he once again approached the division bench by invoking Article 226 of the Constitution of India. In this context, the Hon'ble High Court held that subsequent writ petition under Article 226 is frivolous and suo moto initiated contempt against the Contempnor. The relevant portion of the judgement is extracted herein under; 

"In the present case, the petitioner has chosen to file the revision petition against the interim order, but after its dismissal, the petitioner has chosen to file the present writ petition challenging the same order. The petitioner has abused and scandalized the process of the Court with a view to obtain interim orders by misstating the facts.   

 Consequently, the writ petition is dismissed with costs of Rs.1 lakh. Such costs be deposited with the Punjab State Legal Services Authority, within a period of one week.          

We also deem it proper to initiate proceedings of commission of criminal contempt for filing a frivolous writ petition, to abuse the process of law. Office to register a separate petition and list the same as per Roster on 29.09.2014." 

It would be advantageous to read another decision of the Hon'ble High Court in M/s AIP Industries & Ors Vs Punjab National Bank & Ors