Lashing out at the rich and powerful for wasting judicial time under the guise of ‘fight for justice’, the Supreme Court Tuesday imposed “exemplary” cost of Rs 25 lakh each on three companies for wasting “enormous amount of judicial time” by filing different petitions. A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay M Sapre directed Messer Griesham GmbH, a German Company, and two other firms, GGL and Ruias, to deposit the money for wasting the court’s time. “The said amount is to be paid to National Legal Services Authority as compensation for the loss of judicial time of this country.it may be utilised by the National Legal Services Authority to fund poor litigants to pursue their claims before this court in deserving cases,” added the bench. The court was infuriated on a litigation over acquisition and transfer of shares, involving the three companies, which spanned over 18 years. Underlining that it was an “avoidable” litigation and that it was a “classic example of the abuse of the judicial process by unscrupulous litigants with money power.” [related-post] The bench noted: “This case should also serve as proof of the abuse of the discretionary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 136 (of the Constitution) by the rich and powerful in the name of a ‘fight for justice’ at each and every interlocutory step of a suit.” It pointed out that multiple petitions were filed by all the parties at every stage. “The net effect of all the litigation is this. For the last 18 years, the litigation is going on. Considerable judicial time of this country is spent on this litigation. The conduct of none of the parties to this litigation is wholesome,” held the court. Directing the money to be utilised for helping the needy lead genuine cases, the bench said the petitions were filed by “resorting to halftruths, misleading representations and suppression of facts. Each and every party is guilty of one or the other of the misconducts.” WATCH INDIAN EXPRESS VIDEOS HERE
