HC won't recall order on actor Rajpal Yadav, suspends jail term for 3 days

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed Bollywood actor Rajpal Yadav's plea to recall its earlier order sentencing him to 10 days in jail for misleading the court in a recovery suit filed against him and his wife by a businessman here.

The court, however, suspended his sentence for three days to allow him to file an appeal against its December 3 order before a division bench while imposing certain conditions including surrendering his passport and not leaving Delhi.

Justice S. Muralidhar in an order said, "No ground is made out for recall of the order dated December3, 2013.... Considering the applicant proposes to avail the remedy of a statutory appeal, the court suspends the sentence awarded by the court on December 3 for a period of three days from today till 4.30 PM on December 10, 2013."

Directing Yadav to file an affidavit before the Director General (prison) Tihar jail and an undertaking to this court, Justice Muralidhar said, "The applicant (Yadav) will surrender his passport to the Registrar General(RG) of Delhi High Court not later than 1 PM on December 7, 2013.

"He will remain personally present before the RG on December 10 at 10.30am. In the event, no order is passed by the division bench by December 10, staying the December 3 order, the applicant will surrender forthwith and shall be taken into custody by Naib Court and sent to Tihar jail to serve out the remaining sentence."

The court, which was hearing the recovery suit, had taken exception to the affidavit filed by Yadav on December 2, which was allegedly falsely prepared and contained forged signatures of his wife.

Annoyed over the attempt of the actor, the court had ordered that he be sent to 10 days in jail for contempt and also directed that his wife, who had appeared with her infant before the court, be kept in the office of the Registrar General till rising of the court.

"10 days simple imprisonment for Yadav. As far as respondent number 3 (Yadav's wife) is concerned, the court is taking a lenient view as she has a child with her. She will be kept in the room of Registrar General till closing of the office (today)," Justice Murlidhar had said.

Rajpal and his wife Radha have been engaged in a legal battle after Delhi-based businessman, M.G. Agarwal, owner of Murli Projects, filed a case against them in the High Court for failing to repay a loan of Rs five crore which the actor had taken in 2010 to make his Hindi debut directional film 'Ata Pata Laapata'.

The court had earlier noted that the couple had repeatedly breached the undertakings given by them to repay the loan amount. As the couple failed to give a firm undertaking on whether they were prepared to pay the entire outstanding amount, the court had asked them to remain present in court.

On court's directions, Yadav appeared but his wife had failed to turn up and filed an affidavit before the court with forged signature.