Short answer. Yes, in principle. The rule lists an order directing the arrest of a party or an agent of a party for disobeying a discovery order among the consequences a court may impose. There is one express exception: an order to submit to a physical or mental examination.
What the law says
(d) In lieu of any of the foregoing orders or in addition thereto, an order directing the arrest of any party or agent of a party for disobeying any of such orders except an order to submit to a physical or mental examination.
Rule 29, Section 3 — Other consequences. Read the full provision →
Arrest sits at the end of a graduated list
The rule gives the court a range of responses where a party, or an officer or managing agent of a party, refuses to obey an order to answer designated questions, to produce documents or things, to permit entry upon land, or to submit to examination. The court may make such orders as are just, and the rule then lists them. Arrest appears last, available in lieu of any of the foregoing orders or in addition thereto.
The exception, and why it exists
One order is carved out by name. Arrest is not available for disobeying an order to submit to a physical or mental examination. The distinction is between compelling someone to hand over information and compelling them to submit their own body to inspection. The rule stops short of imprisonment as a means of achieving the latter, while leaving the other consequences on the list available in that situation.
The consequences that usually do the real work
In practice, the earlier paragraphs often bite harder than arrest. The court may order that the matters in question be taken as established in accordance with the claim of the party who obtained the order. It may refuse to allow the disobedient party to support or oppose designated claims or defences, or bar them from introducing designated documents, things or testimony. It may strike out pleadings, stay proceedings until the order is obeyed, dismiss the action or part of it, or render judgment by default.
What to do before asking for anything
These consequences all follow from disobedience of an order, not from a mere refusal to co-operate. So the first step is to obtain the order — to answer designated questions, to produce, to permit inspection or entry. Only once that exists, and has been disobeyed, does this provision come into play. When you do apply, identify precisely which order was defied and what the refusal has cost you, since the rule asks the court to make orders that are just in regard to the refusal.