Srinagar: In order to discourage the improper use of constitutional remedies, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has imposed a ₹50,000 fine on a litigant for filing “unscrupulous and dishonest pleadings” in his writ petition.
The bench of Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal, while dismissing a plea seeking a declaration that the petitioner—SK Trakroo—holds a valid and subsisting allotment of a plot at Rawalpora Housing Colony (now known as Sanat Nagar), Srinagar, and that the subsequent auction and allotment of the plot in favour of A F Mir is illegal, recorded: “It is trite law that a party invoking the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of a constitutional court is expected to approach the Court with clean hands, full candour, and utmost good faith.”
Officials, however, refuted the petitioner’s claim, alleging that the original allotment was cancelled as early as 2001 and that his documents in this regard are forged.
The judgment by Justice Wasim further recorded: “…the Court finds sufficient reasons not only to dismiss the instant writ petition due to misconduct and concealment of material facts but also to levy exemplary costs as a way to express its disapproval and to discourage the improper use of constitutional remedies.”
It accordingly “imposed ₹50,000 as costs on the petitioner in view to curb such abuse of the judicial process, to deter litigants from engaging in unscrupulous and dishonest pleadings, and to prevent recurrence of such malpractice.”
“The said amount shall be deposited before the Registry of this Court within two weeks from today and thereafter shall be released in favour of Respondent No. 8 (Mir) to compensate for the hardship and inconvenience caused to him,” the Court added.
Earlier, the Bench observed that the petitioner deliberately suppressed the filing and dismissal of a prior civil suit on the same cause of action, and approached the High Court with a calculated attempt to re-agitate already rejected claims by misleading this constitutional forum.
“The concealment was neither innocent nor incidental; it was a conscious attempt to secure relief by misusing the process of law,” it said.
