THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN CONTEMPT CASE No.326 of 2011 ORDER: Alleging violation of the undertaking given to this Court by the third respondent herein, to remove the structures in question within a period of three months, the present contempt case is filed. An undertaking given to the Court must, necessarily, be complied with, and failure to do so would invite action under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. However the order, violation of which is alleged in the present proceedings, goes further and records that, in case the structures were not removed within a period of three months, the notice issued under Section 636 of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, 1955 (for short ‘the Act’) would revive, and it would be open to the respondent- Corporation to take action in accordance with law. The order of this Court enabled the respondent-Corporation to take action under Section 636 of the Act consequent upon revival of the notice issued under Section 636 on account of the third respondent’s failure to comply with the undertaking. The subsequent action of the respondent-Corporation is the subject matter of several other orders passed by this Court (with which we are not concerned in this contempt proceedings). Suffice to observe that the degree of proof required to hold a person guilty of contempt is proof beyond reasonable doubt and, even if two views are possible on the violation alleged, this Court would refrain from proceeding further, and would not punish the alleged contemnor under the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act. While there is undoubtedly a violation of the undertaking given to this Court, the consequences of such violation have been spelt out in the order itself which is for the notice, issued under Section 636 of the Act, to revive and for the respondent-Corporation to take action thereafter in accordance with law. In such circumstances, the third respondent cannot be proceeded against for contempt of court. The Contempt Case is, accordingly, closed. RAMESH RANGANATHAN,J Date:26.08.2011 usd