IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. Crl. O.C.P. No. 6 of 1998 DATE OF DECISION : 07.07.2011 Mahant Narain Puri .... PETITIONER Versus Surinder Puri ..... RESPONDENT CORAM :- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE A.N. JINDAL Present : Mr. Sumit Mahajan, Senior Advocate, with Mr. Sham Lal Bhalla, Advocate, for the petitioner. * * * SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. Mahant Narain Puri, the Mahant of Shivala Shanglan Wala, has filed this petition under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for initiating the criminal contempt proceedings against respondent Surinder Puri for his alleged mis-conduct, and to punish him under the said Act. According to the petitioner, the respondent had filed many civil suits against him for the same property, one after the other, the detail of which has been given in the petition. All these suits are frivolous and based on mis-statement of facts. The said conduct of the respondent is alleged to be a patent abuse of the process of the court and an obstruction in the administration of justice, therefore, he is liable to be punished for committing the criminal contempt of court. Crl. O.C.P. No. 6 of 1998 -2- In this petition, notice was issued to the respondent on 13.7.1998 and since then, this petition is pending in this Court. Now, it has been listed for final disposal. After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner and going through the contents of the petition, we do not find any ground to further proceed with the matter, as in our opinion the aforesaid alleged conduct of the respondent i.e. filing civil suits against the petitioner with regard to the same property, itself does not amount to abuse of the process of court or causing any obstruction in the administration of justice. If a suit filed by a person is found to be frivolous or without any merit, it will be dismissed with costs, but merely because a person is availing his remedy under the law by filing civil suit, it cannot be said that he has abused the process of the court. Even otherwise, this contempt petition is pending for the last about 13 years. By now, all the suits, allegedly filed by the respondent against the petitioner, might have been decided. Thus, keeping in view these facts, we do not find any ground to further continue with these contempt proceedings and the same are hereby dropped. The petition is, accordingly, dismissed. ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL ) JUDGE July 07, 2011 ( A.N. JINDAL ) ndj JUDGE