Court pulls up ‘truant’ NRI,slaps Rs 1.5 lakh fine

Additional District Judge,Kamini Lau,pulled up Canada-based Gurbax Singh for taking lightly the judicial orders passed by the court for providing sufficient opportunities to him and asked the Ministry of External Affairs to recover money from him by way of necessary coercive orders.

“The platforms of the court cannot be permitted to be used by unscrupulous persons for their benefit. A person who has no respect for law and has abused the repeated accommodation given by this court deserves no further indulgence. The plaintiff,a Non Resident Indian based in Canada,does not appear to be taking the directions of Indian courts (both this court and the Delhi High Court) seriously and perhaps entertains an impression that come what may,he can get away. This impression requires to be dispelled,” noted the court in its recent order.

Singh had filed a civil suit against his brother and others seeking declaration of his legal rights over a prime property in Greater Kailash-II. He alleged that he should be declared a joint owner of the property,and the subsequent sale to a third party should be declared null and void. Singh,however,flew to Canada after filing the suit in June 2008.

As the proceedings ran through his duly-appointed counsel,the court was informed last February that a settlement was reached between the parties and Singh was paid Rs 10 lakh as the final amount.

Soon thereafter,an application was moved by Singh,refuting the claim regarding the compromise. While the court heard the applications on different dates,a new counsel appeared almost every time while the previous counsels were not discharged.

ADJ Lau had then asked Singh to fly down to India and clarify his position. He,however,kept on buying time on one ground or another. After a penalty order was passed against him,Singh approached the Delhi High Court challenging it.

The High Court found nothing wrong with ADJ Lau’s order and gave him the only relief of keeping in abeyance the penalty on condition that he should present himself before the court and then ask for a waiver.

Refusing to budge,Singh again failed to come to India and sent his counsel to buy more time. This time,however,the court had decided to draw curtains on his case.

“I hold that the attempt of the plaintiff is only to keep the litigation alive on one ground or the other. He has misused and abused the platform of this court,firstly to secure orders in his favour at the initial stage and later by not placing on record the original documents and evading appearance before this court. The allegations made by the defendants that this is being done by the plaintiff only to armtwist them for extorting more money may not be unfounded.

The court then asked the MEA to take all necessary steps like issuing a lookout circular against Singh or attachment orders or confiscating his travel documents and recover Rs 1.5 lakh,of which he has already deposited Rs 50,000 on the High Court directive.