Rajasthan High Court Imposes Rs 50,000 Cost On 3 RSRTC Employees For Suppressing Filing Of Previous Petition For Same Relief

The Rajasthan High Court has imposed a cost Rs. 50,000 each on three employees of Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) who obtained an interim order by suppressing the filing of the previous petition for the same relief.

Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur said the non-disclosure of filing earlier writ petition is nothing but suppression of material fact by the petitioners.

"The interim order obtained by the petitioners in this writ petition is based on misstatement of fact and suppression of material facts," said the court, adding the matter is required to be viewed “very seriously as the same amounts to abuse of process of law”.

Justice Mathur said it is well settled in law that the relief under Article 226 of the Constitution is discretionary and a “petitioner who approaches this Court for such relief must come with clean hands”. If he fails to do so and suppresses material facts, his petition is liable to be dismissed, the court observed.

The writ petition was filed by the three RSRTC employees seeking the withdrawal of the decision to enter their names for deputing them to perform the duties of a driver and requesting permission to serve as conductors in RSRTC.

The counsel for respondent submitted that on an earlier occasion for the same relief, the present petitioners had approached the court by way of filing a writ petition. He further submitted that the petition was dismissed by the court in July 2022, and an appeal against it is pending till today.

The petitioners, without disclosing the fact of a similar writ petition having been filed, obtained an interim order from the court, the counsel argued.

Considering the submissions of the counsel for respondents the court opined, “this Court has no hesitation to come to the conclusion that the petitioners have approached this Court by way of filing the present writ petition for the same relief for which they have earlier approached this Court by way of filing writ petition and the same having been dismissed vide order dated 22/07/2022.”

The fact of filing of earlier writ petition has not been disclosed in the present writ petition, the court noted.

Imposing a cost of Rs.50,000 on the petitioners, the court said said, “If the cost is not deposited by the petitioners within a period of two months from today then the respondents will be at liberty to recover the same from the petitioners and deposit in the Legal Aid Services Authority, Rajasthan High Court Campus, Jodhpur.”

Case Title:Ranveer Kumar &Ors. v. The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation & Ors.

For Petitioner: Advocate R.R. Ankiya

For Respondent: Advocate Suniel Purohit

Click Here To Read/Download Order