- (1.)Leave granted.
(2.)These appeals are directed against judgment and order dated 22.8.2008 passed by the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh, in Contempt Appeal Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of 2007 whereby said Court has allowed all the Contempt Appeals setting aside the order dated 3.8.2007 passed in Contempt Case No. 915 of 2002 wherein K.S. Raju, Promoter Director of M/s. Nagarjuna Finance Limited, Hyderabad, and its other directors were convicted under Section 12 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and each one of them was sentenced to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of six months and were further directed to pay fine of Rs.2,000/- each.
(3.)At the outset, we have no hesitation to observe that the impugned order does not require interference to the extent the same is passed in Contempt Appeal No. 4 of 2007 filed by Minoo R. Shroof, Contempt Appeal No. 5 of 2007 filed by Nimesh N. Kampani, Contempt Appeal No. 6 of 2007 filed by C.D. Menon, Contempt Appeal No. 7 of 2007 filed by A.P. Kurian, Contempt Appeal No. 8 of 2007 filed by Sridhar Chary, Contempt Appeal No. 9 of 2007 filed by G.S. Raju, Contempt Appeal No. 10 of 2007 filed by P.K. Madhav, and Contempt Appeal No. 11 of 2007 filed by L.V.V. Iyyer, which were allowed for the reason that in the Contempt Case No. 915 of 2002 they were not the respondents against whom contempt case was filed. There were only three respondents, namely, K.S. Raju, N. Selvaraj and M/s. Nagarjuna Finance Limited through its Managing Director, against whom contempt petition was filed under Section 12 read with Section 10 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 by E. Bapanaiah (present appellant) before the High Court. Other eight directors had no opportunity to defend themselves before the conviction was recorded by the learned Single Judge in its concluding paragraph 134 of the judgment in the aforementioned Contempt Case No. 915 of 2002.