SC Slaps Cost Of Rs. 50,000 On Litigant For Adjournment

We see no reason why the private respondent No.3 should suffer for this adjournment who has come from Chennai along with his counsel, the bench remarked.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar has slapped cost of Rs 50,000 on a litigant for adjourning a case.

When a special leave petition was posted for admission before the bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the counsel for Meenakshi Enterprises P Ltd sought adjournment on the ground of non-availability of the arguing counsel.

The bench then said: “We see no reason why the private respondent No.3 should suffer for this adjournment who has come from Chennai along with his counsel. “

The court then adjourned the matter to January 10^th, 2018, subject to the payment of costs of Rs. 50,000 to be paid to Anand Kumar Jhawar towards travelling charges.

Anand Kumar Jhawar had filed a plea before the high court seeking a direction to register the case for illegally dispossessing him from the property owned by Meenakshi Enterprises P Ltd.

The high court had also ordered FIR be registered against Jhawar’s partners and managing director of Meenakshi Enterprises and those who were part of the illegal eviction. The high court had accused them of taking subordinate court for a ride by colluding with each other.

The high court had described the case as “a text book case to demonstrate as to how an ingenious litigant can use the legal system for executing an illegal act”.

Meenakshi Enterprises had approached the apex court challenging this order in July, this year.

Read the Order Here