Chennai: “The courts of law are meant for imparting justice between the parties. One, who comes to the court, must come with clean hands. We are constrained to say that more often than not, process of the court is being abused. Land grabbers, tax evaders, bank loan dodgers and other unscrupulous persons from all walks of life find the court process a convenient lever to retain the illegal gains indefinitely. We have no hesitation to say that a person, whose case is based on falsehood, has no right to approach the court. He can be summarily thrown out at any stage of the litigation”, the Madras high court has observed.
The First bench comprising Chief Justice V.K.Tahilramani and Justice M.Duraiswamy further observed that the truth should be the guiding star in the entire judicial process. Every trial is a voyage of discovery in which truth is the quest. It is one of those fundamental principles of jurisprudence that litigants must observe total clarity and candour in their pleadings. The judicial process cannot become an instrument of oppression or abuse, or a means in the process of the Court to subvert justice, for the reason that the court exercises its jurisdiction, only in furtherance of justice. A petition or an affidavit containing a misleading and/or an inaccurate statement or in which material facts are suppressed, only to achieve an ulterior purpose, amounts to an abuse of process of this court, the bench added.
The bench said, “A person who seeks equity must come with clean hands. He, who comes to the Court with false claims or who suppresses material facts, cannot plead equity nor would the court be justified to exercise jurisdiction in his favour. A person who seeks equity must act in a fair and equitable manner. Equity jurisdiction cannot be exercised in a case based on false claims or when relief is sought to be obtained by practicing fraud. No sympathy and equitable consideration can come to the rescue of such petitioner”.
Dismissing the petition filed by M/s D.R.Logistics (p) Limited, which sought to restrain Pridhvi Asset Reconstruction and Securitization Company Ltd from interfering with its right as a custodian to use the property measuring 9.67 acres at Vallur village in Thiruvallur district, the bench made the above observations after Srinath Sridevan, counsel for Pridhvi Asset Reconstruction and Securitisation Company brought to the notice of the court that the petitioner had suppressed the fact that it had filed a Original Side Appeal earlier for the same relief and it was dismissed with a costs of Rs 20,000.
Citing various judgments of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice V.K. Tahilramani, writing the judgment for the bench said a writ remedy was an equitable one. A person approaching a superior Court must come with a pair of clean hands. It should state all relevant facts and not suppress any material fact. In the present case, the petitioner has not disclosed the fact that he had filed Original Side Appeal before this court and the said Appeal came to be dismissed with costs of Rs 20,000. In fact, in the affidavit filed by the petitioner, he has categorically stated that he has not filed any similar petition before this court or any other court. When a person approaches a Court of equity, he should approach the court with clean hands. “In view of the above, we are of the considered opinion that the petitioner did not approach the Court with disclosure of true facts. Thus, the petitioner has not approached the court with clean hands. Hence, he is not entitled to the relief sought for”, the bench added.
