'Harsh Measures Needed To Deal With Suppression Of Facts' : Supreme Court Dismisses SLP With Rs 25K Cost

The Supreme Court today (June 25) deprecated the practice of suppressing material facts by lawyers in Special Leave Petitions. The Court imposed a cost of Rs. 25,000/- on the petitioners and expressed that such 'harsh' measures were necessary.

The vacation bench of Justices AS Oka and Rajesh Bindal was hearing a challenge against the interim order dated March 20 of the Delhi High Court by the All India EPF Staff Federation. The main grievance of the petitioner was that without granting interim relief, the case was adjourned to September. 

During the hearing, the bench observed that the petitioner had wilfully suppressed the order of May 3 which recorded that the counsel of the petitioners did not press for the application for an early hearing before the High Court.  

When the bench indicated that it was going to impose costs, the counsel apologised and urged the bench not to be 'so harsh'. 

Justice Oka replied that the 'harsh' approach was important to deal with the increasing trend of suppressing orders and material facts by counsels. He stressed how such a trend causes inconvenience to Judges who have to search through the High Court websites to get factual clarity instead. 

"Time has come to come down heavily on such petitions where there is blatant suppression of facts. I'm heading a bench which takes up 80 matters on Monday and Friday. At least in 10 cases, we have to do this exercise of going to the High Court website and finding out the correct orders passed in the petitions"

On the insistence of the Counsel to hear the matter on merits, the Bench expressed displeasure at the attempt of the advocate to pursue the case despite the Court highlighting the factual suppression. 

" On your request, the matter was adjourned to September (by the High Court). Was it not your duty to point out this order while filing the SLP? We are dismissing only on the grounds that you have suppressed....It's a very sad state of affairs. In the Supreme Court, you have suppressed such orders and we had to do this exercise sitting at home....and you are brazenly supporting the suppression of facts!  We expect the member of the bar to be submissive when suppression of facts is pointed out." 

While dismissing the present SLP, the  order dicated by the Apex Court observed as follows: 

"The present SLP challenging order dated 20 March 2024 was filed on 14th of June 2024. The Delhi High Court website shows that on 3rd May 2024 the petitioners had moved an application no. 26033 of 2024 for early hearing of the petition. It was obvious that the prayer for early hearing was made as interim relief was refused and a longer date of September was fixed however, order dated 3rd May 2024 shows that the advocate for the Petitioner after some arguments did not press the said application and therefore the same was dismissed. Therefore the Court directed that the case be listed on 5th September 2024. Most importantly, in the SLP filed in June 2024, the fact of filling the application 26033 of 2024 was suppressed and even the order dated 3rd May 2024 was suppressed. 

We dismiss the SLP on account of suppression of material facts. We direct the petitioner shall pay cost of 25000 Rs.." 

Case Details: ALL INDIA EPF STAFF FEDERATION VS. UNION OF INDIA  SLP(C) No. 013329 - 013330 / 2024