Srinagar, Apr 03: Holding that litigant must come with clean hands to the court, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Monday ruled that jugglery, manipulation, maneuvering or misrepresentation has no place in equitable and prerogative jurisdiction.
Upholding a single judge verdict wherein the court had imposed Rs one lakh penalty on petitioner for suppressing material facts and misleading the court to gain advantage over the other side, a division bench comprising Justices, Sanjeev Kumar and Puneet Gupta held that the litigant must candidly state all the facts before the court without reservation.
The court said that he (litigant) cannot be permitted to play “hide and seek” or to “pick and choose” the facts he likes to disclose and keep back or conceal other facts.
“Suppression of material facts, concealment of full details of litigation, present and past, between the parties qua subject matter of dispute, distortion or manipulation of relevant facts, misleading the court by stating false facts or withholding true facts disentitle a party to invoke equitable jurisdiction under Article 226 of Constitution of India,” the bench said.
The bench said that the jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution is extraordinary, equitable and discretionary.
To invoke this extraordinary, discretionary and equitable jurisdiction, the court held, it is of utmost necessity that the petitioner approaching the Writ Court must come with clean hands and put forward all facts before the court without concealing or suppressing anything.
“A litigant is bound to state all facts which are material or relevant to the litigation,” the court said.
The bench passed the observations in two appeals filed by appellant, Fayaz Ahmad Rather and another challenging the judgment passed by a single-judge bench on January 11, this year.
The single bench apart from imposing costs on petitioner for suppressing material facts and misleading the court, had also deprecated the conduct of counsel for writ petitioner and had warned him to be very careful in future.
Citing various Supreme Court judgements, the bench said, “In the light of clear exposition of law by the Apex Court, when we examine the impugned judgment, we cannot help reach a conclusion that the view taken by the Writ Court is a very balanced view in the facts and circumstances of the case and, therefore, unexceptionable.”
The court said that writ court has been very considerate while administering warning to the counsel for the writ petitioner.
“We, however, wish to substitute the “warning” administered to the learned counsel by “advice”. It is in his interest to remain careful in future and not entirely get into the shoes of client,” the bench said while dismissing the appeals.
The court held that as an officer of the Court, a lawyer has equally onerous duty towards the Court as he has towards his client.
Police solves theft case in Handwara within 24 hrs, 01 arrested; stolen property recovered
Handwara, Apr 03: Handwara police have solved a theft case by arresting an accused person involved in the commission of crime within 24 hrs and recovered stolen property from his possession.
On April 02, Police Station Handwara received a complaint to the effect that some unknown thief/thieves have stolen batteries from Govt. Higher Secondary School WarporaMagam.
Accordingly, a case vide FIR No. 71/2023 under relevant sections of law was registered in PS Handwara and investigation was initiated.
A team led by IC PP Magam acting promptly by following leads developed during investigation and by utilising technical evidence, were able to arrest the accused person involved in the commission of crime within 24 hours. He has been identified as Mohd Maqbool Sheikh son of Gh Haider resident of Sher Colony Sopore. On his disclosure, stolen property including 16 batteries have been recovered. Vehicle (Maruti-800) bearing registration number JK09-2263 used in the commission of crime has also been seized.
Further investigation is going on to ascertain further involvement of accused person in other theft cases.
