Delhi HC penalises serial litigant for filing multiple petitions but not pursuing them

The Delhi High Court on Thursday imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on a ‘serial litigant’ who filed multiple petitions against the illegal construction in the Capital but did not pursue them later.

In an order dated December 2, the court said, “It is clear that the petitioner is a serial litigant and has been filing various writ petitions against a number of properties situated in the area in question. The writ petitions, as filed by the petitioner, are not pressed by the petitioner after filing.”

The court was hearing the fifth writ petition filed by the litigant, Hardeep Singh Haspal, regarding the illegal construction of a property in RK Puram. Referring to the earlier judgments, the court noted that it had made it clear multiple times that no one can misuse the process of the court by filing petitions for “oblique motives”.

“The conduct of the petitioner in filing petitions and not pursuing the same, also, does not inspire confidence and is a clear pointer to the fact that the petitions have been filed by the petitioner for self-serving and disagreeable motives,” the court said.

The counsel of the Municipal Cooperation of Delhi (MCD) stated that the petitioner filed four writ petitions between April and May this year.

Initiate action

The court directed the MCD to take action against the alleged unauthorised construction, to which the counsel replied that the civic body was looking into the issue.