At a time when every efforts are being made by the judiciary to reduce the huge burden of pendency, the Supreme Court has decried the tendency among a class of litigants to indulge in protracted legal battles merely to harass the other side by filing repeated petitions on the same issue.
The top court found that there were certain habitual litigants, who after losing the cases, resort to filing petitions repeatedly to use the forum of the court as “a weapon to harass” the rival party.
“Chagrined and frustrated litigants should not be permitted to give vent to their frustration by cheaply invoking the jurisdiction of the court. The court proceedings out not be permitted to degenerate into a weapon of harassment and persecution,” a bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan said in a judgment.
The judgment came on a petition of Meghmala and others against G. Narasimha Reddy and others form Andhra Pradesh in a land dispute case.
The top court also had a word of caution to the high courts against entertaining repeated review petitions on the same issue unless there was real reason for this.
“Judicial pronouncements unlike sand dunes are known for their stability and finality. However, in this case, in spite of the completion of several rounds of litigation up to high court, and one round of litigation before apex court, the parties claim a right to abuse the process of the court with the perception that whatever may be the order of the HC or this court (SC), the dispute shall be protracted and will never come to an end,” the top court said.
The top court pointed out how the parties had undertaken fresh proceedings one round after the other before the trial court, HC and even the top court, which was nothing but “malicious prosecution” as they were not at all serious about justice but more “interested to protract the litigation by one way or the other.”