70% government litigation frivolous; we read about litigation policy only in newspapers: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday lamented that a large part of government litigation is frivolous in nature which adds to the workload of judges.

A Bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra remarked that 70 per cent of government litigation was frivolous and promises about a litigation policy being formulated continue to remain unfulfilled.

The Court made the remarks while dismissing a miscellaneous application (MA) filed by the Union government in a matter that was earlier disposed of.

When the application was taken up today, Justice Gavai even indicated that the Court was inclined to impose costs on the Central government considering the fact that the plea was effectively a review petition in the guise of an MA.

"How much costs, tell us? How can a disposed of petition be revived in an MA? We have deprecated this practice and dismissed with exemplary costs earlier. 70 per cent of such cases are frivolous. If Union and States decide, they can address this. We only read in newspapers about litigation policy being considered, but.." Justice Gavai orally observed, while addressing Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati.

In another hearing, the Bench said that the filing of frivolous petitions was unnecessarily increasing their workload.

This is not the first time the Supreme Court has expressed anguish over unnecessary government litigation adding to pendency before the courts.

In May, a Bench led by Justice Gavai had remarked that at least 40 per cent of litigation pursued by the Central and State governments before courts is frivolous.

In April, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud commented that the Central government should adopt mediation in a big way instead of taking recourse to litigation for resolving legal disputes.

"The motto of the Union government and its agencies should be 'mediate, not litigate'," Chief Justice Chandrachud had opined.