Punjab-Haryana High Court
Pankaj Bala vs Maharishi Daya Nand University on 22 March, 2011
Author: Mahesh Grover
Bench: Mahesh Grover
PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT, CHANDIGARH.
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CWP No. 8835 of 2010
Date of decision: 22.03.2011.
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Pankaj Bala
....Petitioners
Versus
Maharishi Daya Nand University, Rohtak and others.
....Respondents.
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CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MAHESH GROVER
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Present: Shri Abhishek Yadav, Advocate, for the petitioner.
Shri Anurag Goyal, Advocate, for respondent Nos.
1 and 2.
Shri Ajay Saini, Advocate, for respondent No.3.
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Mahesh Grover, J (Oral)
The instant writ petition has been filed by the petitioner seeking quashing of letter dated 20.4.2010 (Annxure P-6) vide which the candidature of the petitioner for admission in B.Ed Course for the academic Session 2009-2010 has been rejected by the Principal, Satish Public College of Education, Delhi Road, Rewari-respondent No.3. A further prayer has been made that the respondents be directed to restore the admission of the petitioner.
Notice of motion having been issued, the respondents have put in appearance and stated that the petitioner has already taken a recourse to the filing of the Civil Suit before the Civil Judge of competent Jurisdiction at Rewari.
In the Civil Suit, application under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil -2- CWP No. 8835 of 2010 Procedure for issuance of injunction order was also moved which was declined by the Civil Judge on 11.5.2010. Thereafter, the petitioner on the very same day moved an application seeking withdrawal of the suit and the following order was passed by the learned Civil Judge:-
"File taken up today on the application. An application for withdrawing the present suit has been moved. Learned counsel for the plaintiff has made the statement to the effect that he does not want to proceed further with the present suit, in view of the statement made by learned counsel for plaintiff, present suit is dismissed as withdrawn. File be consigned to record room after due compliance.
Sd/- Suruchi Atreja Singh, CJ (JD) Rewari 11.5.2010"
A perusal of the averments made in the writ petition shows that the petitioner has cleverly concealed this material fact from this Court. It is also to be noticed that no leave from the learned Civil Judge was sought at the time of seeking withdrawal of the suit to avail other remedy which may be available to the petitioner. It is, thus, evident that the petitioner has tried to over-reach the Court. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in Ramjas Foundation Vs. Union of India and others 2011(1) RCR (Civil) 176 has observed as under:-
" The principle that a person who does not come to the Court with clean hands is not entitled to be heard on the merits of his grievance and, in any case, such person is not entitled to any relief is applicable not only to the petitions filed under Articles 32, 226 and 136 of the Constitution but also to the cases instituted in others courts and judicial forums. The object underlying the principle is that every Court is not only entitled but is duty bound to protect itself from unscrupulous litigants who do not have any respect for truth and who try to pollute the stream of justice by resorting to falsehood or by making misstatement or by suppressing facts which have bearing on adjudication of the issue(s) arising in the case. In Dalglish v. Jarvie 2 Mac. & G. 231, 238, Lord Langdale and Rolfe B. observed:
"It is the duty of a party asking for an injunction to bring under the notice of the Court all facts material to the determination of his right to that injunction; and it is no
-3- CWP 8835 of 2010 excuse for him to say that he was not aware of the importance of any fact which he has omitted to bring forward. In Castelli v. Cook (1849) 7 Hare, 89, 94 Wigram V.C. stated the rule in the following words: "A plaintiff applying ex parte comes under a contract with the Court that he will state the whole case fully and fairly to the Court. If he fails to do that, and the Court finds, when other party applies to dissolve the injunction, that any material fact has been suppressed or not property brought forward, the plaintiff is told the Court will not decide on the merits, and that, as he has broken faith with the Court, the injunction must go." In Republic of Peru v. Dreyfus Brothers & Company 55 L.T. 802, 803, Kay J. held as under:
"I have always maintained, and I think it most important to maintain most strictly, the rule that, in ex parte applications to this Court, the utmost good faith must be observed. If there is an important misstatement, speaking for myself, I have never hesitated, and never shall hesitate until the rule is altered, to discharge the order at once, so as to impress upon all persons who are suitors in this Court the importance of dealing in good faith in the Court when ex parte applications are made."
The same rule was restated by Scrutton L., J in R. v. Kensington Income Tax Commissioner (1917) 1 K.B.
486. The facts of that case were that in April, 1916, the General Commissioners for the Purposes of the Income Tax Acts for the district of Kensington made an additional assessment upon the applicant for the year ending April 5, 1913, in respect of profits arising from foreign possessions. On May 16, 1916, the applicant obtained a rule nisi directed to the Commissioners calling upon them to show cause why a writ of prohibition should not be awarded to prohibit them from proceeding upon the assessment upon the ground that the applicant was not a subject of the King nor resident within the United Kingdom and had not been in the United Kingdom, except for temporary purposes, nor with any view or intent of establishing her residence therein, nor for a
-4- CWP 8835 of 2010 period equal to six months in any one year. In the affidavit on which the rule was obtained the applicant stated that she was a French subject and resident in France and was not and had not been a subject of the United Kingdom nor a resident in the United Kingdom; that during the year ending April 5, 1913, she was in the United Kingdom for temporary purposes on visits for sixty-eight days; that she spent about twenty of these days in London at her brother's house, 213, King's Road, Chelsea, generally in company with other guests of her brother; that she was also in the United Kingdom during the year ending April 5, 1914, for temporary purposes on visits, and spent part of the time at 213, King's Road aforesaid; and that since the month of November, 1914, she had not been in the United Kingdom. From the affidavits filed on behalf of the Commissioners and of the surveyor of taxes, who showed cause against the rule nisi, and from the affidavit of the applicant in reply, it appeared that in February, 1909, a leasehold house, 213, King's Road, Chelsea, had been taken in the name of the applicant's brother. The purchase-money for the lease of the house and the furniture amounted to 4000l., and this was paid by the applicant out of her own money. The accounts of household expenses were paid by the brother and subsequently adjusted between him and the applicant. The Divisional Court without dealing with the merits of the case discharged the rule on the ground that the applicant had suppressed or misrepresented the facts material to her application. The Divisional Court observed that the Court, for its own protection is entitled to say "we refuse this writ of prohibition without going into the merits of the case on the ground of the conduct of the applicant in bringing the case before us". On appeal, Lord Cozens-Hardy M.R. And Warrington L.J. approved the view taken by the Divisional Court. Scrutton L.,J. who agreed that the appeal should be dismissed observed:
"and it has been for many years the rule of the Court, and one which it is of the greatest importance
-5- CWP 8835 of 2010 to maintain, that when an applicant comes to the Court to obtain relief on an ex parte statement he should make a full and fair disclosure of all the material facts - facts, not law. He must not misstate the law if he can help it - the court is supposed to know the law. But it knows nothing about the facts, and the applicant must state fully and fairly the facts, and the penalty by which the Court enforces that obligation is that if it finds out that the facts have not been fully and fairly stated to it, the Court will set aside any action which it has taken on the faith of the imperfect statement."
The above noted rules have been applied by this Court in large number of cases for declining relief to a party whose conduct is blameworthy and who has not approached the Court with clean hands - Hari Narain v. Badri Das AIR 1963 SC 1558, Welcome Hotel v. State of A.P. (1983) 4 SCC 575, G. Narayanaswamy Reddy v. Government of Karnataka (1991) 3 SCC 261, S.P. Chengalvaraya Naidu v. Jagannath (1994) 1 SCC 1, A.V. Papayya Sastry v. Government of A.P. (2007) 4 SCC 221, Prestige Lights Limited v. SBI (2007) 8 SCC 449, Sunil Poddar v. Union Bank of India (2008) 2 SCC 326, K.D. Sharma v. SAIL (2008) 12 SCC 481, G. Jayashree v. Bhagwandas S. Patel (2009) 3 SCC 141 and Dalip Singh v. State of U.P. (2010) 2 SCC 114. In the last mentioned judgment, the Court lamented on the increase in the number of cases in which the parties have tried to misuse the process of Court by making false and/or misleading statements or by suppressing the relevant facts or by trying to mislead the Court in passing order in their favour and observed:
"For many centuries Indian society cherished two basic values of life i.e. "satya" (truth) and "ahimsa" (non-violence). Mahavir, Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi guided the people to ingrain these values in their daily life. Truth constituted an integral part of the justice- delivery system which was in vogue in the pre- Independence era and the people used to feel
-6- CWP 8835 of 2010 proud to tell truth in the courts irrespective of the consequences. However, post-Independence period has seen drastic changes in our value system. The materialism has overshadowed the old ethos and the quest for personal gain has become so intense that those involved in litigation do not hesitate to take shelter of falsehood, misrepresentation and suppression of facts in the court proceedings.
In the last 40 years, a new creed of litigants has cropped up. Those who belong to this creed do not have any respect for truth. They shamelessly resort to falsehood and unethical means for achieving their goals. In order to meet the challenge posed by this new creed of litigants, the courts have, from time to time, evolved new rules and it is now well established that a litigant, who attempts to pollute the stream of justice or who touches the pure fountain of justice with tainted hands, is not entitled to any relief, interim or final."
Having regard to the aforesaid decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the instant writ petition is dismissed on the aforesaid ground of concealment of material facts from this Court without adverting to any other controversy which has been raised in this writ petition.
(MAHESH GROVER)
March 22, 2011 JUDGE
Malik