HC pulls up petitioner for ‘fake’ lease deed, seeks reply on perjury & contempt

Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court issued a show-cause notice to petitioner Yogesh Prasad for allegedly manipulating documents after it found discrepancies in a lease deed he relied on to seek relief. The court noted that Prasad had relied on a specific clause in the alleged lease deed indicating a tenure of 30 years. However, when the court examined the original document, it found that the actual lease duration mentioned was three years."We are of the opinion that the petitioner has placed reliance on fake and manipulated documents to obtain relief by misleading us, which, apart from perjury, also amounts to interference in the course of administration of justice," a division bench of Manoj Kumar Gupta and Subhash Upadhyay said.The case stemmed from an attempt by the Uttarakhand State Cooperative Union Ltd to auction its warehouses. Prasad, a lessee of some of the warehouses, opposed the move citing an existing long-term lease. He had challenged a tender notice issued by the union on Jan 28 to auction all the warehouses under a single entity, arguing that it would jeopardise his leasehold rights over a particular warehouse. Prasad claimed the existence of a 30-year lease agreement and questioned the union's decision to initiate a fresh tender process without first terminating the existing lease.Noting the discrepancies in the document relied upon by the petitioner, the court on Friday said "his actions amounted to interference in the administration of justice" and directed that a notice be issued to him asking why proceedings for perjury and criminal contempt should not be initiated.