Jammu and Kashmir High Court slaps ₹2 lakh costs on Kashmir DHS for stalling execution of decree for 20 years

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh recently asked the office of the Director of Health Services (DHS) at Srinagar, Kashmir to pay ₹2 lakhs as costs for repeatedly filing frivolous cases to halt the execution of a decree passed by a trial court in 2003 [Director Health Services and Another V/S Iqbal Ahmad Baqal]..Justice Atul Sreedharan passed the order after noting that the private party in whose favour the trial court had ruled has been "kept hanging for twenty (20) years" due to the pleas filed by the Srinagar authority.."Under the circumstances, despite the strenuous efforts of the learned counsel for the petitioners, this petition is dismissed and costs of Rs. 2,00,000/- imposed upon the petitioners to be paid to the respondent within a period of thirty days from the date of this Order," the Court ordered. .The Union Territory government is at liberty to recover the costs from the Director, Health Services, Kashmir, the Court added..The High Court passed the order while dismissing a 2018 writ petition filed by the DHS and its accounts department. The said petition challenged an order passed by the Executing Court in respect of a 2003 decree passed in favour of one, Iqbal Ahmad Baqal and against the DHS. .Notably, the 2001 suit was decreed ex parte since the DHS failed to appear before the trial court. While the DHS challenged the ex parte decree, its application was eventually dismissed since it again failed to appear before the court to argue its case. After the suit was decreed, an appeal was not filed within the limitation period. Owing to such delay, first and second appeals that were eventually filed were dismissed.When execution proceedings were initiated, the DHS filed a revision plea before a district judge, which was dismissed. The DHS then filed a writ petition before the High Court, which was dismissed as well. In 2015, the High Court also dismissed a plea to restore the writ petition after a 550 day delay."The conduct of the petitioners (DHS authorities) reveals that it was casual and careless about the manner in which it was prosecuting the case," the Court opined..Thereafter, the DHS approached the High Court again in 2018, to challenge the Execution Court proceedings. The DHS authorities argued that it had already complied with the directions given in the trial court's decree in 2003. As such, there was nothing further to fulfill in the decree passed by the trial court and Execution Court's actions were bad in law, the DHS said. .These contentions were opposed by the private party in whose favour the trial court had ruled (respondent). The counsel for the respondent submitted that the correct forum for the petitioners (DHS) to make their submissions was before the Executing Court itself. Instead, the DHS authorities chose to file another petition in 2018, which has been pending for the last five years, during which time it has been listed for almost 15 times, the Court was told. .The High Court agreed with the concerns raised by the counsel for respondent and dismissed the 2018 petition filed by the DHS with costs to be paid to the respondent. ."If the petitioners (DHS) were aggrieved by the order passed by the learned Executing Court, they had an opportunity to go before it and demonstrate there that the decree passed by the Trial Court was already complied with and there was no reason for any execution, but instead it has chosen to further delay the proceedings by another five years by filing this petition," the High Court added..Government Advocate Sajad Ashraf appeared for the DHS. Senior Advocate NA Beigh along with advocates Sofi Manzoor and Irfan appeared for the respondent. .[Read Order]