G.K.Sampath Kumar vs The State Of Telangana
2021 Latest Caselaw 4182 Tel

Citation : 2021 Latest Caselaw 4182 Tel
Judgement Date : 7 December, 2021

Telangana High Court

G.K.Sampath Kumar vs The State Of Telangana on 7 December, 2021

Bench: Satish Chandra Sharma, N.Tukaramji

  THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA
                                    AND
            THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE N. TUKARAMJI


                  WRIT APPEAL No.418 of 2021


JUDGMENT:    (Per the Hon'ble the Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma)


     The appellant before this Court has filed the present

appeal being aggrieved by the order dated 07.07.2021

passed by the learned Single Judge in W.P.No.14850 of

2021.

     The facts of the case reveal that the appellant, who

is a dismissed employee of Singareni Collieries Company

Limited, has preferred the writ petition for issuance of

appropriate writ, order or direction in respect of an

enquiry to be conducted against the respondent No.6

therein (Chairman and Managing Director of the

Singareni Collieries Company Limited), as he has

declared 27.02.2018 as a holiday with pay on account of

the fact that the Chief Minister of Telangana was visiting

the Singareni Collieries Company Limited. The facts

further reveal that earlier also in respect of the same

cause of action, a writ petition was preferred i.e.,

W.P.No.43840 of 2018 and it was dismissed as

withdrawn on 24.12.2018 with a liberty to the appellant

to file a writ petition in appropriate form (to file a Public

Interest Litigation). Again a second writ petition,

claiming the same relief, was filed after a lapse of three

years. The learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ

petition. The operative portion of the said order is

reproduced as under:-

"It is not understandable as to how the petitioner can file the present writ petition after a lapse of three years. More so, when W.P.No.43840 of 2018 filed by the petitioner was dismissed as withdrawn on 24.12.2018 granting liberty to the petitioner to file a writ petition in appropriate form (read as Public Interest Litigation).

In Dnyandeo Sabaji Naik v. Pradnya Prakash Khadekar ((2017) 5 SCC 496), a Three-Judge Bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held as under:

"13. This Court must view with disfavour any attempt by a litigant to abuse the process. The sanctity of the judicial process will be seriously eroded if such attempts are not dealt with firmly. A litigant who takes liberties with the truth or with the procedures of the Court should be left with no doubt about the consequences to follow. Others should not venture along the same path in the hope or on a misplaced expectation of judicial leniency. Exemplary costs are inevitable, and even necessary, in order to ensure that in litigation, as in the law which is practiced in our country, there is no premium on the truth."

In view of the ratio laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the aforesaid judgment, the repeated filing of the writ petitions by the petitioner is nothing but an abuse of process of this Court and the same cannot be countenanced by any stretch of imagination. The petitioner cannot use this court for settling his private score with the respondent No.6 and waste the precious time of this Court. Thus, the writ petition is liable to be dismissed on the ground of laches, and also on the ground that the earlier writ petition was dismissed as withdrawn granting liberty to file a Public Interest Litigation, but not to file another writ petition. Even though the petitioner has been granted a liberty to withdraw the writ petition and file a Public Interest Litigation, he has not chosen to do so.

For the foregoing reasons, the writ petition is dismissed with costs of Rs.50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand only) payable by the petitioner to the Telangana State Legal Services Authority, within a period of four weeks from today.