Allahabad High Court Imposes ₹25K Cost On Litigant Repeatedly Agitating Compassionate Appointment Plea By Suppressing Previous Rejection

Last week, the Allahabad High Court imposed cost of Rs. 25,000 on a litigant who had been repeatedly approaching the High Court for consideration of his application for compassionate appointment even though his claim had been rejected in 2011, and the order of 2011 remained unchallenged.

After petitioner's father died-in-harness in 2007, he applied for compassionate appointment. Though his claim was rejected in 2011, petitioner approached the High Court for consideration of his claim in 2016, without disclosing the 2011 order. Another order was passed by the authority disclosing the 2011 order and rejecting petitioner's claim. However, the petitioner only challenged the 2017 order. He again did not challenge the 2011 order before the High Court.

Without setting aside the order of 2017, the matter was remanded for reconsideration. After reconsidering the claim of the petitioner, the same was again rejected in 2023. This order was challenged before the High Court.

The Court observed that the petitioner had again not challenged the order of 2011 and was agitating stale claim over and over again.

Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery held,

“By misleading in earlier two round, this Court has granted opportunity for reconsideration, however, petitioner is now miserably failed to mislead and on basis of above referred material on records and documents since claim of petitioner was rejected way back in the year 2011 while remained unchallenged, therefore, prayer to open the case is unjustified.”

Holding that petitioner was not a bonafide litigant, the Court dismissed his writ petition and imposed cost of Rs. 25,000 on him.

Case Title: Hari Shankar v. Union Of India And 3 Others [WRIT - A No. - 857 of 2024]

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