23-04-2025
Bombay high court sentences Navi Mumbai woman for criminal contempt over dog feeding dispute
Mumbai: The
Bombay high court
on Wednesday held a
Navi Mumbai woman
of guilty of
criminal contempt
of court and sentenced her to a week's simple imprisonment for her "audacious attack on the court" through an article she wrote and circulated in a large residential complex on "dog feeder's mafia". The writing scandalised and lowered the dignity of the court and interfered with the administration of justice, held the HC.
The contemnor,
Vineeta Srinandan
, "made serious insinuations against HC and Supreme Court judges", said a division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna.
On a request made by her senior counsel Vikram Nankani, the HC suspended the sentence for 10 days, to enable an appeal before the SC.
The court had initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the woman, a resident and former director of Seawoods Estates Ltd in Navi Mumbai.
Seawoods had earlier petitioned the HC to challenge rule 20 of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules of 2023. It requires residents' welfare associations (RWAs) and apartment owners associations (AOAs) to enable feeding of strays on their premises and for local civic bodies to provide space and make arrangements to feed community animals.
A resident, Leela Verma, in turn, expressed her grievances of being unlawfully stopped from feeding strays. In Jan, the HC, in an interim order, directed Seawoods not to obstruct Verma and also not to stop any domestic help from going to her house for her duties.
Verma, through her lawyer S V Sonawane, had also cited "objectionable" content issued by Srinandan in the form of a circular dated Jan 29. The complex has around 1,500 families. After perusing the circular, the HC, on Feb 4, said contempt proceedings were required to be initiated for "such conscious, brazen, derogatory, and objectionable contents" considering the "impunity and tenor of her writings". However, at the time, she was not in India.
On Feb 7, the HC issued Srinandan a show-cause contempt notice. On Feb 21, the HC noted that the board of directors of Seawoods Estate Ltd had completely disowned Srinandan's actions.
Srinandan, in an affidavit, said that her writing was a "grave error" and she had resigned as Seawoods director, and taht she holds the judiciary in high regard. She sought pardon and leniency. The HC said a holistic reading of her reply shows no compunction for her "conscious actions", and it appeared to be a "whitewash".
The HC said the contents of her article, right from its title, were a dedicated attempt and design calculated to bring the court and the judges into disrepute through her "reckless comments".
Could such vilification be set to nought by accepting her "crocodile tears", wondered the court. The HC said she committed criminal contempt and deserved the maximum punishment—of six months—but it was giving her a lesser sentence. "The iron hands of law apply equally irrespective of the category of the contemnors," the HC observed as it also imposed on her a fine of Rs 2,000.
