Read Time: 06 minutes

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Gavai and Hima Kohli today imposed a cost of Rs. two lakhs on a petitioner for wasting court’s time despite being forewarned that the court was not inclined to grant any relief in the matter.

The petition challenged the judgments and orders passed by Bombay High Court and Additional Sessions Judge setting aside the order of Taluka Executive Magistrate, holding that  the petitioner is in control and management of “The Jalgaon Jilha Vidya Prasarak Maratha Samaj Ltd.” The respondents in the petition were a group of persons seeking control of the management of the institution.

The Taluka Executive Magistrate passed an order under Section 145 of CrPC which deals with the procedure that a magistrate is to follow when there is a  dispute concerning land or water that is likely to cause breach of peace. The law requires that a preliminary order necessarily required to be passed under Section 145(1) of the Cr.P.C prior to passing a final order, however the Magistrate passed a final order directly.

The Bombay High Court had held that Section 145(1) mandates the Executive Magistrate to make an order in writing, stating the grounds of his satisfaction that a dispute likely to cause breach of peace exists concerning any land or water. The High Court had noted that the order of the Magistrate was rightly set aside by the sessions judge.

When the matter came up for hearing before the Supreme Court today, the bench forewarned the petitioner that it finds no merit in the plea as the judgment of the high court and sessions court is well reasoned. Justice Gavai insisted more than once that “when a law requires a particular thing to be done in a manner, it has to be done in that manner or not done at all!”

The bench further told the counsel that if they do not manage to convince them on the position of law, a cost will be imposed on the petitioners at the end of the hearing.

The counsel for the petitioner however chose to argue the matter. Court, on hearing the arguments, dismissed the petition and initially noted in its order that it had already warned the counsel not to argue the matter and hence it is imposing costs.

Court imposed a cost of Rs 18 lakhs initially with Justice Gavai saying, “Rs. one lakh for every minute of the court’s time that you have wasted.”

Court further noted that it is of the considered view that the petition is a luxury litigation between two warring groups for the control of the institution.

The counsel for the petitioner however persuaded the court to reduce the costs. Court, thus, reduced it to Rs. two lakhs of which one lakh is to be paid to Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) and one lakh is to be paid to Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) . Court also indicated to the counsels that they will remove the observations in the order but the cost will have to be paid.

Case title: Nilesh Vs Mahesh