T. Arivandandam v. T. V. Satyapal & Another

Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J. The pathology of litigative addiction ruins the poor of this country and the Bar has a role to cure this deleterious ten dency of parties to launch frivolous and vexatious cases.

Here is an audacious application by a determined engineer of fake litigations asking for special leave to appeal against an order of the High Court on an interlocutory application for injunction. The sharp prac tice or legal legerdemain of the petitioner, who is the son of the 2nd respondent, stultifies the court process and makes decrees with judicial seals brutum fulmen. The long arm of the law must throttle such litigative carricaturcs if the confidence and credibility of the community in the judicature is to survive. The contempt power of the Court is meant for such persons as the present petitioner. We desist from taking action because of the sweet reasonableness of counsel Sri Ramasesh.

What is the horrendous enterprise of the petitioner? The learned Judge has, with a touch of personal poignancy, Judicial sensitivity and anguished anxiety, narrated the sorry story of a long-drawn out series of legal proceedings revealing how the father of the petitioner contested an eviction proceeding, lost it, appealed against it, lost again, moved a revision only to be rebuffed by summary rejection by the High Court. But the Judge, in his clement jurisdiction gratuitously granted over six months' time to vacate the premises. After having enjoyed the benefit of this indulgence the maladroit party moved for furher time to vacate. All these proceedings were being carried on by the. 2nd respondent who was the father of the petitioner. Finding that the court's generosity had been exploited to the full, the 2nd res pondent and the petitioner, his son, set upon a clever adventure abuse of the process of the court. The petitioner filed a suit before the Fourth Additional First Class Munsif, Bangalore, for a declaration that the order of eviction, which had been confirmed right up to the High Court and resisted by the 2nd respondent throughout, was one obtain ed by 'fraud and collusion'. He sought an injunction against the exe cution of the eviction order. When this fact was brought to the notice of the High Court, during the hearing of the prayer for further time to vacate, instead 0£. frowning upon the fraudulent stroke, the learned judge took pity on the tenant and persuaded the landlord to give more time for vacating the premises on the basis that the suit newly and sinisterly filed would be withdrawn by the petitioner. Gaining tifile by another five months on this score, the father and son belied the hope of the learned judge who thought that the litigative skirmishes would come to an end, but hope can be dupe when the customer con cerned is a crook.

process of the court to cling on to the shop. The trick they adopted was to institute another suit before another Munsif makinQ a carbon copy as it were of the old plaint and playing upon the likely guilibility of the new Munsi! to grant an ex parte injunction. The 1st respondent entered appearance and exposed the hoax played upon the court by the petitioner and the 2nd respondent. Thereupon the Munsif vacated the order of injunction he had already granted. As appeal was carried without success. Undaunted by all these defeats the petitioner came to the High Court in revision and managed to get an. injunction over again. The lst respondent promptly applied for vacating the tempo rary injunction and when the petition came up for hearing before Mr. justice Venkataramayya, counsel for the petitioner submitted that he should not hear the case, the pretext put forward being that the petition er had cutely mentioned the name of the judge in the affidavit while des cribing the prior proceedings. The unhappy Judge, who had done all he could to help the tenant by persuading the landlord, found himself badly betrayed. He adjourned the case to the next day. The tor ment he underwent is obvious from his own order where he stated

"l spent a sleepless night yesterday."

Luckily, he stabilised himself the next day and heard arguments without yielding to the bullying tactics of the petitioner and impro priety of his advocate. He went into the merits and dismissed the revision. Of course, these fruitless proceedings in the High Court did not deter the petitioner from daring to move this Court for special leave to appeal.

We have not the slightest hesitation in condemning the petitioner for the gross abuse of the process of the court repeatedly and unre pentently resorted to. From the statement of the facts found in the Judgment of the High Court, it is perfectly plain that the suit now pending before the First Munsif's Court, Bangalore, is a flagrant mis use of the mercies of the law in receiving plaints. The learned Munsif must remember that if on a meaningful-not formal-reading of the plaint it is manifestly vexatious, and meritless, in the sense of not dis closing a clear right to sue, he should exercise his power under Or. VII r. 11 C.P.C. taking care to see that the ground mentioned therein is fulfilled. And, if clever drafting has created the illusion of a cause of action, nip it in the bud at the first hearing by examining the party searchingly under Order X C.P.C. , An activist Judge is the answer

to irresponsible law suits ... The trial court should insist imperatively on examining the party at the first hearing so that bogus litigation can be shot down at the earliest stage. The Penal Code (Ch. XI) is also resourceful enough to meet such men, and must be triggered against them. In this case, the learned Judge to his cost realised what George Bernard Shaw remarked on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi :

"It is dangerous to be too good."

The trial court in this case will remind itself of s. 35-A C.P.C. and take deterrent action if it is satisfied that the litigation was inspired by vexatiou·s motives and altogether groundless. In any view, that suit an immediate hearing to the parties concerned.

We regret the infliction of the ordeal upon the learned Judge of the High Court by a callous party. We more than regret the circum stance that the party concerned has been able to prevail upon one lawyer or the other to present to the court a case which was disinge nuous or worse. It may be a valuable con!ribution to the cause of justice if counsel screen wholly fraudulent and frivolous litigation refus ing to be beguiled by dubious clients. And remembering that an advocate is an officer of justice he owes it to society not to collaborate in shady actions. The Bar Council of India, we hope will activate this obligation. We are constrained to make these observations and hope that the co-operation of the Bar will be readily forthcoming to the Bench for spending judicial time on worthwhile disputes and avoid ing the distraction of sham litigation such as the one we are disposing of. Another moral of this unrighteous chain litigation is the gullible grant of ex parte orders tempts gamblers in litigation into easy courts. A judge who succumbs to ex parte pressure in unmerited cases helps devalue the judicial process. We must appreciate Shri Ramasesh for his young candour and correct advocacy.

S.R. Petition dismissed.