1 month jail-term to edible oil company director for contempt

A director of a private edible oil company has been sentenced to one month imprisonment for making "false, misleading and mischievous statements" and submissions before the Delhi High Court in a recovery suit filed by a bank against his company five years ago.
The court allowed the plea of the Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB), one of the company's secured creditors (and mortgagee of the companies properties in Industrial Area, Meerut Road in Ghaziabad), for suo motu initiation of contempt against Vinod Kumar Jain, Director of Elephanta Oil and Vanaspati Industries Ltd.
"Jain is convicted of criminal contempt as charged, and sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for one month. His bail and surety bonds are cancelled. He shall surrender and serve his sentence forthwith," a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudershan Kumar Misra said.

Rejecting Jain's apology, the bench said "...Jain wilfully, and with a clear intention to provide contradictory and false facts to the court in order to further obstruct the due administration of justice, i.E. In allowing the court to exercise its powers in order to vindicate PSBs rights, made false depositions.
"Such statements clog the judicial process, and while individually may seem small in respect of the entire matter of liquidation of the company, are cumulatively, as a trend, highly detrimental to the court's ability to administer its powers as provided under the law. There cannot be any two opinions that such conduct is calculated and meant to undermine the authority of the courts and erode the rule of law...," the bench also said.