In a striking show of defiance that the Delhi High Court deemed “a deliberate attempt with evil motive,” businessman Nitin Bansal has been sentenced to one month in jail for criminal contempt after he threatened a court-appointed commissioner with a gun during an official inspection in Faridabad.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Prathiba M Singh and Rajneesh Kumar Gupta ruled that Bansal’s behaviour amounted to an attempt to obstruct the administration of justice. Alongside the jail term, he was ordered to pay a ₹2,000 fine — failing which his sentence will extend by another 15 days.
The court noted that Bansal’s act of placing the gun on the table during the commissioner’s proceedings was not accidental but a deliberate attempt to intimidate. “His conduct demonstrates a clear intent to interfere with the court’s process,” the bench observed.
The contempt case traces back to a long-running dispute over the disposal of 30,000 tonnes of industrial coal linked to Bansal’s father, Ashok Bansal. In 2024, the High Court had barred the family from handling the coal, later appointing advocate Nandini Bali as local commissioner to inspect the site.
During her visit, Nitin Bansal allegedly stormed in, acted aggressively, and displayed a pistol to scare her and the accompanying police officers. The weapon was seized on-site and later identified as an air gun — not the “toy gun” Bansal claimed it to be.
The judges dismissed his explanation and apology as insincere, calling it “false and misleading.” While the court initially ordered his immediate arrest, it granted Bansal a brief reprieve to surrender by November 6 due to an upcoming family wedding.
The message from the Bench was clear: no one, however influential, is above the authority of the court.
