20 years to resolve a $400 fine? India to block frivolous govt litigation

Analysts say state agencies habitually file appeals, adding to the drain on coffers

- Rohini Mohan

Rohini Mohan India Correspondent BENGALURU When Mr Jagdeep Singh filed a petition challenging a government notice that demanded he pay an additional amount for the residential land he was allotted, the middle-aged professional did not expect it to end only 20 years later, with the Supreme Court of India delivering an epic scolding to the state agency for dragging out the petty case.

Calling the case "frivolous litigation", the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) and said Mr Singh owed no money to the agency.

The judges even ordered a rare penalty imposing a 100,000 rupee (S$1,500) fine on Huda to be paid to the court for wasting its time and 50,000 rupees to Mr Singh as compensation for involving him "in unnecessary litigation".

"It is because of (the) impersonal and irresponsible attitude of the officers, who want to put everything to court and shirk taking decisions," said the May 2023 verdict from India's apex court.

Mr Singh's case involved 26,880 rupees that Huda kept demanding as unpaid dues for 20 years, but which the courts repeatedly ruled he did not owe. The Supreme Court verdict said that "the amount spent on litigation would be much more (than the demanded amount)".

India's Supreme Court has reason to be so irritable. It has a backlog of 83,000 cases as at August 2024 the highest recorded to date.

The government, including ministries, agencies and the bureaucracy at the central, state and district levels, is a litigant in 73 per cent of all cases in the Supreme Court.

In June, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal finalised a long-awaited National Litigation Policy to "unclog the wheels of justice" and prevent the government from being "a compulsive litigant", as the previous law minister Ashwani Kumar called it.