The Supreme Court Wednesday rebuked a lawyer for misusing the judicial process and filing more than one lawsuit for the same purpose - which the law does not permit.
A vacation bench of Justice Sudershan Reddy and Justice Aftab Alam also threatened to impose a penalty of Rs.100,000 on lawyer Dushyant Parashar for misusing the judicial process.
'Is this what you have learnt? Please don't test our patience. If you speak one word more, we will impose a cost of Rs.100,000 on you,' the bench told Parashar.
The remarks came after the bench found that the lawyer had moved the court against a judicial order to his client to vacate a tenanted premises. The advocate had filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the constitution, which empowers a citizen to move the apex court directly in case fundamental rights are violated.
But the court detected that the lawyer had already earlier exhausted his options for moving the court as he had first filed a special leave petition (SLP) challenging the high court order for eviction of the tenant. An SLP is filed to challenge a high court order.
The bench found that after the SLP was dismissed, the lawyer had also utilised his option to challenge the high court order through a review petition before the apex court.
And when the review petition too was dismissed, the lawyer moved the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the constitution.