Supreme Court imposes ₹50,000 costs on petitioner seeking "neutral bench" without upper-caste, OBC judges to hear reservation case

The Supreme Court recently imposed ₹50,000 as costs on a petitioner who moved the Court to have a special 'neutral' bench without judges from upper-caste and other backward classes (OBCs), hear a reservation case pending before the Madhya Pradesh High Court [Lokendra Gurjar vs State of Madhya Pradesh and ors]..A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Pankaj Mithal on July 17 dismissed the appeal arising out of a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that had turned down the request saying it was an attempt to browbeat the court.The costs were directed to be deposited with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within a month."The only infirmity that we find with the impugned order of the High Court is that heavy cost was not imposed on the litigant who filed a mischievous I.A. No.1873/2023 seeking constitution of a bench as he wanted, to the writ petition. Consequently, this mis-conceived Special Leave Petition is dismissed imposing costs of Rs.50,000/- on the petitioner," the top court observed..A division bench of the High Court had on March 20 declined to constitute a special bench to hear the batch of petitions concerning the quantum of OBC reservation in Madhya Pradesh.The bench of Justices Sheel Nagu and Virender Singh had passed the order while dismissing an interlocutory application (IA) seeking a direction that the case be placed before a neutral bench comprising judges who neither belong to OBC nor any unreserved category."This Court is of the firm view that I.A. for constitution of Neutral Special Bench is nothing but an attempt to browbeat the members of this Bench and also to delay the proceedings ... to undermine the majesty of justice and cause interference in the administration of justice," the High Court had observed."We are bound by our oath to adjudicate the cause herein without fear or favour, affection or ill will," it had further said.This led to the present plea before the apex court..Around 48 petitions are pending before the High Court with regard to OBC reservation in the State.Since 2019, the High Court has stayed and/or eventually struck down increases in OBC quota to 27 per cent in educational institutions and public services. This has led to newer bills being passed in this regard, forming the subject matter of the current batch of pleas..Advocates Uday Kumar, Varun K Chopra, Rameshwar Thakur, Samridhi Jain, and Vinayak brief by VKC Law Offices appeared for the instant appellant, one Lokendra Gurjar.Note: An earlier version of the article stated that the costs imposed were ₹10,00,000, based on inputs from sources. The same turned out be incorrect in terms of the final order; the error is deeply regretted.[Read Order]