Rajasthan High Court Slams Litigants For “Forum Shopping”, Imposes ₹1 Lakh Cost & Refers Issue To Chief Justice

Taking serious note of the practice of “forum shopping” and terming it highly disreputable, the Rajasthan High Court imposed a cost of Rs. 1 lakh each, on a number of petitioners for the same.

The court was hearing a batch of pleas where certain institutions had sought inclusion of their names in the list of eligible institutions for counselling in B.Sc. Nursing Course for the academic session 2025-26 onwards. 

Justice Sameer Jain was hearing a bunch of petitions with an identical issue of forum shopping, in which, even though the territorial jurisdiction lay before the Jaipur Bench of the Court, these were filed before the principal seat at Jodhpur.

The Court further highlighted that to its “shock and surprise”, even the Registry did not mark this as a defect or raise any objections regarding their maintainability.

“…the jurisdictional guidelines qua the Rajasthan High Court are byepassed and misused. There is rampant Bench hunting, forum shopping which is ignored by the Registry. Nevertheless, the concerned Court also on account of heavy workload, is not able to consider the said aspect at the initial stance…”

The Court held that such a practice not only violated the fundamental essence of the Indian legal system but also made the justice expeditiously warranted, since justice is tardily denied due to legal and administrative technicalities.

It was highlighted that in a number of judgments by the Supreme Court and High Court, this practice was deprecated time and again. For instance, in the case of Dhanwantri Institute of Medical Science Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors., a cost of Rs. 10 lakhs was imposed since the petitioner first filed a petition before the Jaipur bench, and then, after withdrawing it, filed it before the Jodhpur bench without disclosing the said fact.

Further, in the case of Vijay Kumar Bhai & Ors. Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors, the Supreme Court had termed the practice of bench hunting and forum shopping as “disreputable”.

The Court opined that in both benches of the Court, there existed several instances of disparity regarding the filing of petitions. In many matters, petitions were either filed concurrently or consecutively before both benches, or by concealing material facts of pendency or disposal of an earlier litigation at another bench.

It was further highlighted that in certain cases, dummy parties were arrayed with the sole purpose of creating jurisdiction. Such petitions, filed with a critical issue of maintainability regarding territorial jurisdiction, were prima facie overlooked.

In this background, the Court decided to impose the cost on the petitioners.

“Taking note of the alarming issue of “forum shopping and Bench hunting” despite categorical observations by various Judicial authorities, this Court deems it apposite to impose a cost of Rs. 1 Lac only, upon the petitioners having there residents/locus at or under the territorial jurisdiction of Jaipur Bench, and have filed the petitions herein before the Principal Seat, Jodhpur.”

Opining that the act of forum shopping was highly disreputable, directions were made to refer the issue to the Chief Justice for passing appropriate orders and directions.

Accordingly, the petitions were disposed of.

Title: Annpurna Medical Training (College of Nursing) v State of Rajasthan & Ors.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 333

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