Karnataka HC sentences man to three months’ imprisonment for forging court order

The High Court of Karnataka has sentenced a man to three months’ simple imprisonment for criminal contempt after he was found guilty of forging a 2017 court order by changing the date and adding the names of some individuals as petitioners who had not filed any petition.

A Division Bench comprising Justices D.K. Singh and H. Shanthi Bhushan passed the order in a criminal contempt of court petition initiated suo motu by the court against Chethan Kumar, a resident of Siddlaghatta in Chickballapur district.

As many as 26 students, who had failed to complete engineering courses within stipulated period, had filed writ petitions before the Vacation Bench, which had passed an interim order on September 28, 2017, directing respondent engineering colleges and the Visveswaraya Technological University to receive their applications for allowing them to appear for exams in backlog subjects.

Later, an advocate for the petitioner-students filed a complaint before the court alleging that the interim order had been fabricated by altering the date from “28.09.2017 to 28.10.2017”, a Saturday when the court was closed, and by adding the names of students who were not petitioners in the original writ petitions.

While the police conducted an investigation and filed charge sheet against Chethan Kumar, the court initiated a separate proceedings under the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 against him.

During the trial of contempt proceedings, the Bench noted that Chethan Kumar did not deny forging the date of the interim order or adding the names.

Hence, the Bench observed that Chethan Kumar had “attempted to interfere with due course of judicial proceedings and polluted the stream of justice by forging an order passed by this court,” while convicting him.