Kerala High Court initiates contempt case against man who forged ex-wife's signature to file cases

The Kerala High Court recently initiated criminal contempt of court proceedings against a man who filed petitions using forged signatures of his estranged wife [Abhila Madhavan Nair v. Ministry of External Affairs & ors]

A Division Bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and S Manu imposed total costs of ₹3 lakh against Shibu Mohan for abusing the process of court and causing unnecessary hardship to his wife.

"This Court cannot allow itself to be used as an instrument of fraud. In the facts and circumstances involved, this writ appeal is undoubtedly liable to be dismissed; however, inevitably with exemplary costs. Mr. Shibu Mohan has abused the process of court, obtained a favourable order by playing fraud on this court and wasted judicial time. He also dragged his estranged wife Mrs XXX to unnecessary litigation causing mental agony and losses to her," the Court added.

Mohan was directed to pay ₹1.5 lakh to the Kerala Legal Services Authority for wasting the court's judicial time and an additional ₹1.5 lakh to his wife for the mental agony and financial loss caused to her.

Mohan had filed a writ petition in his estranged wife's name, challenging a show cause notice issued to him by the Consulate General of India, Dubai for allegedly suppressing a pending criminal case while renewing his passport.

This writ petition was dismissed by a single judge, following which a writ appeal was filed, again using the wife's name.

The fraud only came to light after the wife complained to the police that neither the writ petition nor the appeal had been filed with her consent or knowledge. She also informed the passport authorities about the misuse of her identity, following which her complaint was placed before the Court by the Registry.

The Court directed the Registry to conduct an inquiry. The Registrar (Judicial) submitted a detailed report confirming that the pleadings and vakalats in the petitions were forged and that Mohan was responsible for filing them using forged signatures of his wife.

The report also found that the counsel who represented Mohan, Advocate VS Nowshad, was guilty of attesting false documents and making untrue statements in violation of Rules 76 and 79 of the High Court Rules.

It concluded that these actions constituted multiple offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) including those of forgery, fraudulent use of documents, false evidence etc.

The Court noted that even after being restrained from leaving the country, Mohan had attempted to go abroad in defiance of the Court's earlier orders. Calling his conduct unforgivable and an attempt to mislead and evade the Court, the Bench ordered that criminal contempt proceedings be initiated against him.

The wife was also permitted to pursue her police complaint and take independent action against the counsel involved. A direction was also passed preventing Mohan from leaving India until the contempt proceedings are concluded.

Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup appeared for the State.

Senior Central Government Counsel TC Krishna represented the Union.

[Read Judgment]