Calling it an “abuse of process of law”, the Supreme Court has imposed a cost of Rs1.5 lakh on a real estate firm seeking direction to the Bombay High Court to hear its 2019 appeal in a time-bound schedule.
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Rajesh Bindal, on May 4, while allowing the builder M/s IS Infrastructure And Buildcon Private Limited to withdraw the plea, imposed the cost observing: “...we saddle him with costs of Rs1.5 lakh, which will be payable by the petitioner to the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority.”
SC 'shocked' over mandamus plea
The bench noted that “a large number of appeals which are 15 to 20 years old pertaining to the jurisdiction of the single judge are pending in the said court”. It also expressed “shock” that a professional builder and contractor had filed a petition seeking a mandamus (a judicial writ issued as a command to an inferior court) to the Bombay High Court to dispose of the appeal.
Coming down heavily on the builder, the SC said, “We deprecate the attempt made by the petitioner to jump the queue by approaching this court in this manner. A litigant who can afford to approach this court in this manner cannot get priority over other older cases. Filing such petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution of India is nothing but an abuse of the process of law.”
What is the case about?
The builder had a dispute with the Central Bank of India which was sent for arbitration in 2013. An order was passed in 2019 by the Principal District Judge, Nashik, against which the builder filed an arbitration appeal before the HC, said builder’s advocate Kuldeep Patil.
Initially, the appeal was listed before a division bench of the HC. On March 2, 2021, the division bench noted that it should be heard by a single judge and passed an order to be placed for hearing before a single judge. The appeal has been listed for hearing before a single judge on a few occasions. However, it could not be heard due to paucity of time. Aggrieved, he approached the apex court.
