Supreme Court imposes Rs 5 lakh cost on Centre for challenging Meghalaya HC order on its own concession

The Supreme Court imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakhs on the Centre for challenging an order passed by the Meghalaya High Court based on the Union’s own concession that a previous decision covered the matter.

Expressing disappointment over the Union’s move to challenge the High Court’s order, the apex court recorded that this was a sheer abuse of the process of law and warned the Union against filing frivolous petitions.

A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma recorded in their order that the Special Leave Petitions are dismissed with costs for the reason that before the High Court counsel for the petitioner-Union of India contended that the matter was squarely covered by a previous decision and, subsequently, the High Court had disposed of the matter on the statement of the counsel for Union of India. The court added that the petitioners are cautioned not to file such frivolous petitions in future.

Before the Meghalaya High Court, the Centre had challenged an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal. In a similar matter, where the Centre had challenged the Tribunal’s order, the High Court had on March 14, 2022 dismissed the appeal on the ground that the Tribunal had given adequate reasons. 

Furthermore, the Court had also noticed the legal position as arrived by the Karnataka High Court in Union of India vs. M.N.Ramachandra Rao., WP No. 45591 of 2012. The top court later affirmed the same. Hence, when the present matter came up before the High Court on April 04, 2022, the Centre contended that the same could be disposed of in view of the March 14 order. 

Considering the aforesaid submission, the Court recorded that in view of such fair submission, since the previous writ petition was disposed of without interfering with the relevant order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, the same order is passed herein. It further clarified that in keeping with the order dated March 14, 2022, the relief that the respondent herein will be entitled to will be confined to what is covered by the legal position indicated in the Karnataka judgment and not beyond.

At present, the Centre moved the Supreme Court against this order. The apex court added that there was no basis for the Centre to challenge the aforementioned order through this Special Leave Petition.

After imposing the aforesaid cost, the Court directed the same to be deposited in the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund within eight weeks. A week thereafter, the Centre was required to file proof of such deposit with the top court’s Registry.