High Court imposes Rs. One Lakh as Cost for Abuse of Jurisdiction [Read Order]

The High Court of Punjab & Haryana, while dismissing the writ petition imposed the exemplary cost. The Court imposed the cost of Rs. 1 Lakh to be deposited with the PM-CARES Fund.

The petitioners are residents of Mumbai & the company-respondent itself is registered with the Registrar of Companies, Mumbai & has no connection with the Registrar of Companies, Punjab & Chandigarh.

The lawyer for the petitioners contended that the petitioners were disqualified from acting as Directors in a company- respondent.

The lawyer appearing for the Union of India through a video conferencing pointed out that both the petitioners are residents of Mumbai & the company- respondent, from which the petitioners were disqualified to act as Directors, is also registered with the Registrar of Companies, Mumbai. However, the Registrar of Companies, Punjab, & Chandigarh has no connection with the present case & this Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the present writ petition.

The lawyer for the petitioners has been unable to show how the present writ petition was maintainable before the Court.

The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Alka Saran observed that the writ petition seems to have been filed only to gain the benefit of the interim order passed by this Court in the case of ‘Gurdeep Singh &Ors. Vs. Union of India &Anr.’ & other similar cases through the initiation of the writ proceedings before this HC was clearly unsustainable & an abuse of jurisdiction. The filing of the present writ petition before this HC was not bonafide.

The Court said that “The present writ petition deserves to be dismissed with exemplary costs. Dismissed with costs of Rs.1,00,000/- to be deposited by the petitioners with the PM-CARES Fund". 

Read Order

Source Link