No Section 19 Contempt Appeal Without Guilt Finding: Raj HC

Order Finding No Contempt Is Not Appealable Under Section 19 of Contempt of Courts Act: Rajasthan High Court

Published: 29 October 2026 · NyayVidhan

A Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal and Justice Sameer Jain, dismissed as not maintainable a special appeal against a contempt court's order of 28 September 2026 that had held no contempt made out and dismissed the contempt petition (paras 1, 3). No appeal lies under Section 19 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the Bench held, where the contempt court has recorded no finding of guilt against the respondent (para 2).

Key holdings

An order holding that no contempt is made out and dismissing the contempt petition records no finding of guilt against the respondent (paras 1-2).

Without such a finding of guilt, no appeal is maintainable under Section 19 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 (para 2).

The special appeal was dismissed as not maintainable, and pending applications, if any, were disposed of (paras 3-4).

Judgment digest by NyayVidhan: a summary of the court's judgment, not its text. The judgment itself is the authoritative version.

Brief Facts

By an order dated 28 September 2026, the contempt court held that no contempt was made out and dismissed the contempt petition (para 1). The appellant challenged that order before a Division Bench in D.B. Special Appeal (Civil) No. 7/2026. The respondents named in the appeal are the District Collector, Tonk, the Sub Divisional Officer and the Tehsildar, Devli, and four other persons (cause title). The order records an appearance for the appellant only. It does not set out the order whose breach was alleged or the contempt court's reasons.

Court's Findings

The Division Bench started from the contempt court's order of 28 September 2026, which held that no contempt was made out and dismissed the contempt petition (para 1). In the Bench's considered view, no appeal is maintainable under Section 19 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, because the contempt court had neither found the alleged contemnor guilty nor recorded a finding of guilt against the respondent (para 2). The appeal was therefore held not maintainable and dismissed (para 3). The Bench did not examine the merits of the contempt petition, cited no decisions and did not discuss whether any other remedy lay against the contempt court's order (paras 1-4).

Legal Principle

An appeal under Section 19 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 is not maintainable against a contempt court's order holding that no contempt is made out and dismissing the contempt petition, because the contempt court has neither found the alleged contemnor guilty nor recorded a finding of guilt (paras 1-3).

NyayVidhan's view · Practice note

Why It Matters

A party whose contempt petition ends with a finding that no contempt is made out cannot reopen it through a Section 19 appeal: the Division Bench treated a finding of guilt against the respondent as the condition for such an appeal and dismissed this one as not maintainable (paras 2-3). The two-page order does not consider whether any other route is open. That question is addressed in Sanjay Prasad v. Madhusudan Dwivedi, where the Supreme Court held that only a punishment order is appealable under Section 19, while a contempt order that decides merits or requires fresh compliance is open to an intra-court appeal where the High Court's rules permit. Before appealing, check what the contempt order actually decided.

Editorial comment by the NyayVidhan Editorial Desk. It is not part of the Court's judgment and is not legal advice.