Hyderabad, Mar 18 (PTI) The Telangana High Court on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on a petitioner for attempting to mislead the court by suppressing facts by filing different writ petitions in a land dispute case.

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Dismissing the petition by Venkata Rami Reddy, Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka directed him to pay the costs to the High Court Legal Services Authority on or before April 10, 2025.

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If this direction is not complied with, the Judge asked Registrar (Judicial-I) to list the writ petition on April 11 without fail.

The petitioner, who claimed to be the owner and possessor of land measuring nine acres at Bandlaguda mandal here, had approached the HC seeking a direction to the government, officials of Roads and Buildings department among others to forbear from interfering with his possession and enjoyment of the land.

He further claimed that it was his father, who had acquired the property by virtue of registered sale deed from the legal heirs of R Venkatesham, who was the original pattadar and possessor of this land.

The court was apprised that the petitioner suppressed the material facts of filing different writ petitions in the affidavit filed in support of his writ petition.

During the hearing, the Government Pleader for Revenue as well as the counsel for two of the impleaded respondents informed the court that during the pendency of the writ petition, the petitioner, again, approached the High Court as well as civil court and obtained status quo orders.

“This conduct of petitioner not only undermines the integrity of the judicial process but also leads to an abuse of legal remedies, causing unnecessary burden on the Courts. Hence, it is imperative, in the interests of justice, to dismiss the writ petition with exemplary costs,” the order said.

It was found that the petitioner, with the help of land grabbers, was filing frivolous and vexatious writ petitions on the basis of fabricated, and bogus documents, to grab the valuable government land.

Observing that the Indian society has long been founded upon the fundamental value of "truth" (Satya), a concept that transcends mere honesty to embody a profound adherence to righteousness, authenticity, and moral integrity, the Court said this case depicts a classic example how such a cherished basic value by Indian society for centuries has been put under the carpet by petitioner.

A lawyer said the imposition of Rs One crore as costs on a petitioner was the highest so far in the history of the court.

During the hearing earlier, the Government Pleaders for Revenue, Roads & Buildings, based on the written instructions obtained from the Tahsildar, Bandlaguda Tehsil, informed the court that a title dispute with regard to the property was pending between R Venkatesham (deceased) represented by legal representatives and five others and the government.

The court was also informed that the petitioner, who is claiming the land, approached the court with false and concocted story and trying to obtain interim orders so as to change the nature of government land and to knock away the valuable government property.

It was further told that the petitioner's father filed writ petitions in 2022 and 2023 and both were dismissed as withdrawn in March 2023 and December 2024 respectively.

"With regard to suppression of facts, this Court is of the view that anyone who takes recourse to method of suppression in a court of law, is, in actuality, playing fraud upon the court, and suppression of truth is equivalent to expression of falsehood, gets attracted since petitioner has not disclosed filing of several writ petitions concerning the subject land and dismissal of some of them.

"Hence, he has to be non-suited on the ground of suppression of material facts as he has not approached the court with clean hands and also abused the process of law," the court observed.

The Court in its order further said the judicial system is grossly afflicted with frivolous litigation, hence, ways and means need to be evolved to deter litigants from their compulsive obsession towards senseless and ill-considered claims.

It expressed its dissatisfaction over the unbecoming conduct of the petitioner in wasting judicial time by filing cases suppressing the facts, the order said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)