Supreme Court praises Azim Premji for forgiving person who filed 70 frivolous complaints against him

The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended for three years the conviction by Karnataka High Court in a contempt of court case against one R Subramanian who had filed around 70 cases against former Wipro chairperson Azim Premji [Azim Hasham Premji and anr vs India Awake for Transparency and ors]..The Court also quashed various criminal cases filed against Premji by the Subramanian after he conceded that the same were frivolous, and tendered an unconditional apology to Premji.A Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh appreciated the fact that Premji took a compassionate view of the conduct of the complainant and agreed to forgive him."We are happy to note that Mr. Azim Hasham Premji has taken a constructive view of the matter and agreed to forgive the past conduct of Mr. Subramanian, more so, in view of the financial issues he has faced," the Court observed..The respondent in the present criminal appeal, R Subramanian, through his companies had filed more than 70 cases against Premji and his associates.The Bench was hearing Azim Premji and his wife Yaseem Azim Premji's plea to quash the proceedings before a Bengaluru Magistrate on a criminal complaint filed by the NGO "India Awake for Transparency", alleging illegality in transfer of shares assets to Premji's trust from his private companies. In December 2020, the top court had stayed the proceedings against Premjis..The Bench had earlier asked the respondent, who was convicted for contempt of court by the Karnataka High Court in January for filing several 'frivolous' cases against Azim Premji on the same cause of action, to tender unconditional apology. It had also asked Premji's counsel, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, to persuade Premji to take a compassionate view..The Bench accepted the respondent's affidavit and took note of his undertaking that stated he would submit:1) An apology for the past conduct including initiating these proceedings in different forums;2) An undertaking to withdraw all proceedings whether in this matter or otherwise initiated by him which are not in defence of claims in Subhiksha/Vishwapriya;3) An undertaking for the future not to launch any proceedings and undertaking to wind up this organization and not to create any more organization nor to use his brilliance and help of other people to create further litigation;.The respondent agreed to withdraw all his complaints before concerned courts by filing necessary applications, as well as tender the apology in leading newspapers. The Court noted that it was the respondent's failure towards certain schemes that caused a financial burden on him, to escape which he launched criminal complaints against Premji."Even if he redeems for his past conduct in these various proceedings, it will not take away his various responsibilities and liabilities towards various claimants in the Subhiksha/Vishwapriya litigation. In fact, the failure of these schemes caused financial burden on Subramanian and his group companies and in an endeavour to escape the liability, he initiated litigations," the Court noted.Towards, the respondent said he would shut down his organisations, namely India Awake Transparency Pvt Ltd and the Wholesale Trading Services Pvt Ltd, and the Court ordered that they be struck off the Register of Companies along with their websites being shut. .In view of the above, the Karnataka High Court judgment of January 14, 2022 which had found Subramanian guilty of contempt of court for filing multiple, frivolous cases against Wipro and Premji, was suspended by the top court.The High Court had sentenced Subramanian to two months of simple imprisonment and a fine of ₹2,000.The Court kept the proceedings pending while stating that the conduct of Subramanian be monitored during the said period. .The top court adjourned the challenge against the Karnataka High Court order convicting representatives of the NGO to March 15, 2022. .[Read Order]