1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH, NAGPUR Contempt Petition No.187 of 2010 In First Appeal No.190 of 2009 (Amravati Zilla Dudh Utpadak Sahakari Sangh Maryadit, Amravati, through its Manager v. Employees State Insurance Corporation, Sub- Regional Office, Nagpur, through its Regional Director, and another) Office Notes, Memoranda of Coram, appearances, Court's orders or directions Court's or Judge's orders and Registrar's order Shri N.R. Saboo, Advocate for Petitioner. Shri M.P.M. Pillai, Advocate for Respondents. Coram : R.K. Deshpande, J. Dated : 21 st December, 2010 The prayer clause in this contempt petition discloses that the complaint is regarding flouting/disobeying the order dated 30- 3-2009 passed by this Court confirming the judgment and order passed by the Employees State Insurance Court, Amravati, in E.S.I. Case No.2 of 2004, decided on 29-12-2008. The operative part of the judgment and order passed by the Employees State Insurance Court on 29-12-2008 is reproduced below : “Petition is hereby allowed. Notice of recovery dated 09-02-2004 and 09-06-2004 2 regarding contribution are hereby set aside. Respondent No.1 and 2 are hereby directed to refund the amount of contribution, if any, recovered from the petitioner society. Costs shall be borne by the respondent.” The order passed in First Appeal No.190 of 2009 dated 30-3-2009 is not annexed to the petition. This Court had passed an order dated 18-11-2010 as under : “Shri Pillai, learned counsel appearing for respondent nos.1 and 2 submits that the interim relief as prayed for4 in prayer clause (ii) be granted as respondent nos.1 and 2 are ready and willing to refund the entire amount of contribution recovered by the petitioner society as per the order passed by the Employees State Insurance Court, Amravati, in E.S.I. Case No.2/ 004. He further submits that three weeks’ time be granted to file reply. Permission to refund the amount is granted. S.O. 9/12/2010.” Shri Pillai, the learned counsel appearing for the respondents, has filed an affidavit of respondent No.1 on 3-12-2010. It is stated in the affidavit that the entire amount 3 has been refunded, which was of Rs.3,48,094/-, and this is the figure, which is mentioned by the petitioner in para 5 of the petition. The relevant portion of the affidavit, as contained in para 6, is reproduced below : “The Respondents submit that there is some delay in refunding the amount of Rs.3,48,094/- to the Petitioner, but the Respondents humbly submit that the delay caused was not intentional and deliberate. Therefore, the Respondents submit that there is no willful disobedience of the order passed by the Hon’ble Industrial Court Amravati on 29.12.2008 in Ins. Case No.2 of 2004 and confirmed by this Hon’ble Court by dismissing First Appeal No.190 of 2009 and L.P.A. No.240 of 2009. However, the Respondents tender their unconditional apology to this Hon’ble court for causing the delay in refunding the amount and pray that the unconditional apology tendered by the Respondents be accepted and they be discharged from the contempt notice.” The petitioner has filed counter to the reply filed by the respondents. The claim in the counter is that the interest at the rate of 12% has not been paid and the costs awarded by the Employees State Insurance Court have also not been paid. Shri Pillai, the learned counsel, submits that after ascertaining the costs payable, the same shall be paid. In view of the statement made on affidavit by the respondents and the statement made at bar by the learned counsel for the respondents, nothing survives in the present contempt petition and the same is, therefore, dismissed. 4 It is made clear that dismissal of the contempt petition shall not come in the way of the petitioner to adopt such other remedies, as may be available in law, to recover interest. Judge pdl