Lady Justice Is Blindfolded Only To Be Non-Partisan, Not To Be Blind To Mischief Or Fraud Played Out By Dishonest Litigants
Case: Sh Awaneesh Chandra Jha V. Anil Prasad Nanda
Coram: Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani
Case No.: CS(OS) 161/2022
Court Observation: “A court is a forum for laying serious, bona-fidé claims, even if they turn-out to be legally untenable or meritless upon conclusion of the process. A court is not a place for fraudulent game-playing by dishonest litigants, to attempt to get judicial imprimatur for false claims. This derives from the inexorable, immutable and overarching principle that fraud or fraudulent conduct in a court of law vitiates all curial proceedings,”
“The brazenness with which the plaintiff submitted that since he is the “MASTER” of his own suit – dominus litus, as he would argue – the court cannot stop him from withdrawing from the proceedings or abandoning his claim, set the court thinking as to the soundness of this proposition cast by the plaintiff in absolute and audacious terms,”
“Such a right would imply that a court of law is a place where a litigant may approach without much cogitation, with a purported claim, whether bona-fidé or otherwise, substantiated or not, to take a chance and play a gambit; and if found floundering or failing, a litigant could simply walk-away, as a matter of absolute right, without the court having any say whatsoever in the matter. In the opinion of this court, that is not the position,”
“This would be de rigueur where it appears that the litigating parties are, whether by consent or otherwise, seeking to destroy or negate the rights of a third party that is alien to the particular proceedings,”
“This court must disabuse the plaintiff of this flawed assumption, in the clearest possible terms. The right to withdraw a suit is not absolute; and certainly no process or procedure of law can be made a tool to perpetuate deceit in a court of law. A court is never powerless to deal with a dishonest litigant.”
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Keywords
Lady Justice Is Blindfolded, Non-Partisan, Dishonest Litigants
