Supreme Court Imposes Rs 5 Lakhs Cost On Union Govt, Cautions Against Filing Frivolous Petitions In Future

“Accordingly, the Special Leave Petitions are dismissed with costs for the reason that before the High Court counsel for the petitioner-Union of India submitted that the matter was squarely covered by a previous decision and, accordingly, the High Court had disposed of the matter on the statement of the counsel for Union of India.,” Justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma recorded in their order.

"The petitioners are cautioned not to file such frivolous petitions in future," the Court added.

Before the High Court, the Union had challenged an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal. In a similar case, where the Union had challenged the Tribunal's order, the High Court had (on March 14, 2022) rejected the appeal on the ground that the Tribunal had given adequate reasons. Further, the Court had also noticed the legal position as arrived by the Karnataka High Court in Union of India vs. M.N.Ramachandra Rao., WP No. 45591 of 2012. The Supreme Court later affirmed the same.

Thus, when the present matter came up before the High Court (on April 04, 2022), the Union submitted that the same could be disposed of in view of the March 14 order. Agreeing with this, the Court recorded:

“In view of such fair submission, since the previous writ petition was disposed of without interfering with the relevant order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, the same order is passed herein. It is also made clear that in keeping with the order dated March 14, 2022, the relief that the respondent herein will be entitled to will be confined to what is covered by the legal position indicated in the Karnataka judgment and not beyond.”

Now, the Union approached the Apex Court against this order.

The Supreme Court added that there was no basis for the Union to challenge the aforementioned order through this Special Leave Petition.

“We have further perused the order dated 14th March, 2022 and we find that the present matter was disposed of in the same terms as in the order dated 14th March, 2022. There was no occasion or justification for the Union of India to have challenged the said order by way of this Special Leave Petition.”

Thus, after imposing the fine above, the Court directed the same to be deposited in the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund within eight weeks. A week thereafter, the Union was required to file proof of such deposit with the Top Court's Registry.

Additional Solicitor General of India Vikramjeet Banerjee appeared for the petitioner. Advocate on Record Avijit Roy represented the respondents.

Case : Union of India and ors v. Sudipta Lahiri

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 326

Click here to read the order