Corporates flooding courts with frivolous cases, says CJI JS Khehar

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice JS Khehar on Wednesday frowned upon the tendency among corporate houses to flood the courts with cases challenging every imaginable interim order passed by any legal forum.

"This has been the tendency in the last five to six years, corporate bodies coming to the Supreme Court against every single order. You have the money so you come to the court against every single interim order," the CJI said.

The remarks came during the hearing on an appeal filed by a company.Commercial and corporate cases have flooded the top court in recent years, which led it to set up a tax bench or two to deal with those. Every single judgement and even interim orders are challenged in the top court. To avoid allegations of being slow in dealing with such cases, the top court had in some cases even fast-tracked them.

There had been attempts to impose a higher fee on corporate litigants, but those attempts have failed so far as such a move would be inherently violative of the right to equality guaranteed to every citizen of the country.

But many people argue for imposing huge costs on such litigants. A few lakhs here and there, for example, do not make any difference to a corpora te client who is paying crores to top lawyers, a senior lawyer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.The new CJI has been acting tough against those filing frivolous petitions or even appeals, and has imposed huge costs on those who lose their appeals. This has caused much heartburn among lawyers.

He is not granting adjournments in any case, unless necessary to clear the backlog. He is also placing top priority to old criminal cases.

The top court is hearing criminal cases dating back to over a decade. Justice Khehar frequently alludes to this in court, wondering aloud why he should place other matters on fast-track when thousands languish in jail awaiting trial.

India has a huge population of undertrials, those accused of crimes but still awaiting a formal trial.