Madurai
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday imposed a cost of ₹ 10,000 on a petitioner for failing to disclose necessary facts.
The court was hearing a petition filed by P. Mariappan of Palayamkottai, who sought a direction to the district authorities to hear him before granting approval to housing plots in Keelanatham village. He claimed that the lands belonged to his ancestors and civil suits were pending in this regard.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar took cognisance of the fact that the petitioner had failed to disclose how he was the absolute owner of the property as no proof was filed in this regard. Further, no information on other legal heirs and their right to the property or details of the pending civil suits and their current status were mentioned.
The court observed that writ jurisdiction was an extraordinary remedy provided to the citizens of the country by makers of the Constitution. Unscrupulous litigations could not be tolerated by the court. Therefore, the petition was liable to be dismissed with exemplary cost, the court said and imposed a cost of ₹ 25,000.
However, considering the request made by the petitioner’s counsel, the cost imposed was reduced to ₹10,000.
