Contempt of court claim over 20-foot fence

A Penal woman wants a judge to send her next-door neighbour to prison for failing to follow the court’s order to demolish a 20-foot galvanise fence separating them.

Justice Joan Charles will hear the case on February 6 and determine whether Devika Bhimull-Bisnath and Davindra Bisnath should be jailed for contempt of court, if in fact they have failed to comply with her (the judge) April 17, order. A contempt of court charge can, at a judge’s discretion, lead to 21 days’ simple imprisonment.

An ongoing feud between relatives Santie Bhimull and Bhimull-Bisnath reached its pinnacle last April, after the latter erected a fence in October 2016 along the boundary between the families’ homes at San Francique Road.

Bhimull filed a lawsuit against Bhimull-Bisnath, the first of its kind in this jurisdiction, pleading that the fence causes her to live in hot and stifling conditions. Since it blocks the free flow of air, Bhimull pleaded through her attorney Stephen Boodram, that she is must take regular baths.

When the case came up for hearing before Justice Charles, the families consented to resolve the dispute and an order was agreed in which Bhimull-Bisnath undertook to break the fence and not to build one more than seven feet high, in accordance with Town and Country Planning regulations.

The family agreed not to harass, curse, insult, intimidate or obscure the access of light and air and even restrict Bhimull’s view of the horizon from her home. Bhimull contended that the fence prevented her from getting sunlight and blocked her airspace. But last week Tuesday, attorney Boodram filed an application on Bhimull’s behalf, for contempt of court against Bhimull-Bisnath, in which he claimed that while the fence has been removed, the frame is still in place and as such, she has not complied with Justice Charles’ order.