The Supreme Court of India on Friday imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on the State of Jharkhand for filing a frivolous appeal, emphasising that such practices must come to an end.
A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan remarked that despite being warned for the past six months, the attitude of the State government hasn't changed.
"Practice of States filing frivolous petitions needs to stop. Despite our repeated warnings, attitude of State governments does not change. We have been telling this for 6 months," it was observed.
The Court further directed that the costs be shared between the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) welfare funds.
Liberty was given to the State government to recover the costs from the errant official responsible for the litigation.
The case involved a government employee who had been dismissed from service following a departmental inquiry where 14 charges, including those of indiscipline, dereliction of duty and failure to follow orders, were brought against him. He challenged his 2011 dismissal from service before the writ court.
The writ court found that the inquiry report’s findings were not definitive in proving the charges and that the dismissal order lacked sufficient reasons to justify such a severe punishment. As a result, the writ court questioned the legitimacy of the dismissal.
The State of Jharkhand, in an appeal before the High Court, argued that 12 out of the 14 charges were proven in the inquiry, justifying the dismissal.
However, the High Court noted that the dismissal order had been issued by the departmental secretary, who also happened to be the appellate authority. This deprived the employee of his right to appeal, as the same authority that issued the penalty was responsible for hearing appeals.
Given this fact, the High Court agreed with the writ court’s decision and declined to overturn the dismissal order.
Challenging this, the State moved the Supreme Court, which has now dismissed the appeal with costs.