Ahmedabad Tile Traders Sentenced to One Year in Jail for Non-Payment to Morbi Ceramics

In a significant legal development, the court has severely reprimanded an Ahmedabad-based ceramic trading company for non-payment after purchasing tiles on credit from a Morbi-based ceramics company. The Ahmedabad-based traders have been sentenced to one year in jail and ordered to repay double the check amount.

According to the details of the case, Sachin Mahasukhbhai Shah, Pallavika Mahasukhbhai Shah, and Rupa Sachin Shah—who previously operated under the company Shalin Ceramic and now operate as Graffiti India Pvt. Ltd.—purchased ceramic tiles worth millions of rupees from Ashutosh Tiles Pvt. Ltd. of Morbi on credit. However, they were unable to settle an outstanding amount of over Rs 65 lakh.

The defendants had issued two checks totaling 25 lakh rupees as part of the payment, but both were dishonored. Cases were subsequently filed with the Morbi court. After hearing both sides, Judicial Magistrate C.Y. Jadeja found the defendants guilty in both cases.

The court sentenced each trader to one year in prison and ordered them to pay 50 lakh rupees as compensation (double the amount of the check) to the plaintiff within 60 days. Failure to pay the compensation will result in an additional 90 days in prison.

The plaintiff, Ashutosh Tiles Pvt. Ltd., was represented by attorneys B.N. Sheth, Nish Sheth, and Jankiben Mehta.