“Luxury Litigation”: Allahabad High Court Imposes ₹100 Cost Each On More Than 6,400 Petitioners For Moving Against Settled Law

The Allahabad High Court has imposed a cost of Rs. 100 each on more than 6,400 petitioners who had approached the High Court against law settled by the Supreme Court in the case of State of U.P. & Ors Vs. Shiv Kumar Pathak & Ors (2018).In 2017, 5he Supreme Court in the case of Shiv Kumar Pathak & Ors held though the authorities would have been permitted to proceed in terms of the advertisement dated 7th December, 2012 in the normal course, however, since 66,655 teachers had been appointed due to the interim order passed by it, the Court had allowed filing up of remaining vacancies after issuance of fresh advertisement and not in terms of the advertisement dated 7th December, 2012. Petitioners had appeared successfully in the Teachers Eligibility Test (Primary Level) Examination- 2011. They approached the High Court seeking a writ of mandamus directing the authorities to carry out the selection process of TET 2011 in terms of the advertisement dated 7th December, 2012. It was prayed that the test results dated 25.11.2011, 30.11.2011 and 29.1.2015 be quashed and revaluation be done of the OMR sheets, disqualifying those who had used whiteners. Counsel for petitioners argued that the judgment in Shiv Kumar Pathak & Ors did not bar commencement of selection process as per advertisement dated 7th December, 2012. Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery rejected the prayers made by the petitioners as being contrary to the aforesaid decision of the Apex Court. It held that the selection process could not be opened again as the appointments made earlier had been protected by the Apex Court. Dismissing the writ petitions, the Court held that “In present circumstances, Court is constraint to observe that these litigations appear to be luxury litigations since issues raised in present bunch of writ petitions have already been settled by Supreme Court in Shiv Kumar Pathak (supra) and petitioners (6402 in numbers) in all writ petitions were also conscious of these facts, and decision of Shiv Kumar Pathak (supra) still they have filed present writ petitions, therefore, all Writ petitioners shall pay Rs.100/- each as cost since these litigations has wasted crucial time of this Court.”The Court further directed that in case of default by the petitioner, the person who has signed the affidavits on their behalf shall be responsible for payment of the cost, and the cost be recovered from the pairokar. Case Title: Sunil Kumar Yadav And 2041 Others v. State Of U.P. And 2 Others [WRIT - A No. - 10478 of 2022]Click Here To Read/Download Order

“Luxury Litigation”: Allahabad High Court Imposes ₹100 Cost Each On More Than 6,400 Petitioners For Moving Against Settled Law

Upasna Agrawal

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