The Allahabad High Court while dismissing a PIL observed that it is well settled 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. Suppression of material facts from the court of law, is actually playing fraud with the court.
The Division Bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Kshitij Shailendra passed this order while hearing a PIL filed by Inder Singh Mehra.
The petition has been filed purportedly in public interest seeking direction to respondent Nos 1 to 4 to comply with the judgement dated 25.10.2021.
The said order has been passed by the Sub-Divisional Officer, Bilaspur, Rampur under Section 4 of the Uttar Pradesh Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1972.
It is stated by the petitioner in the petition that he has got no personal interest in the matter and that the petition has been filed solely in public interest.
It has come on record that earlier petition in the nature of public interest filed by the petitioner on same cause of action (Inder Singh Mehra vs State of U.P and 4 others) was permitted to be withdrawn with liberty to approach the authority concerned vide order of the Court dated 14.07.2023.
Once again, the petitioner has approached the Court by way of the petition.
The Court made a pointed query to the counsel for the petitioner as to whether there is any relationship between the petitioner and respondent No 5. He stated that there is no relationship between them and the petition has been filed solely in public interest, however, after going through the judgement and order dated 25.10.2021 passed under Section 4 of the Act, the Court found that the petitioner is uncle (Tau) of respondent No 5.
The Court also found that there was dispute amongst them in relation to partition of same property, though, in the petition, it has been stated that the petitioner has no personal interest in the disputed land nor is he interested to occupy it illegally, “rather he is interested in maintaining ecological system as well as better environment of the area for good health to humanity along with animals and other creatures of land.”
The Court opined that the petition is motivated one to settle personal scores and not a bonafide litigation in public interest.
“In the case, while the petitioner has prayed for ensuring compliance of the aforesaid order dated 25.10.2021 passed against his nephew without disclosing the relationship between the parties and, infact, deliberately concealed the same in the petition and even the counsel denied the existence of any relationship between the parties during the course of argument, it is apparent that the petitioner has not approached this Court with clean hands and material facts have been deliberately suppressed.
In view of the aforesaid judicial pronouncements, now it is well settled 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. Suppression of material facts from the court of law, is actually playing fraud with the court. The maxim suppressio veri, expression falsi, i.e suppression of truth is equivalent to the expression of falsehood, gets attracted in such cases including the present one”, the Court observed.
In view of the above discussion, the petition is a gross misuse and abuse of process of law. Therefore, the Court dismissed the petition with a cost of Rs 25,000/-.
The Court directed the Registrar General to send a copy of this order to the respondent No 2-District Magistrate, Rampur, who shall recover the amount of cost from the petitioner as arrears of land revenue within a period of one month from the date of receipt of order and shall remit the amount recovered to the Court along with a compliance report.