NEW DELHI: The High Court has slapped a tenant with a fine of Rs 20,000 for abusing the court process by seeking to summon certain court staff as witnesses in a pending matter relating to his landlord’s plea to evict him from the property.
The high court said it was convinced that the tenant has wasted “very precious quasi-judicial time” of the competent authorities and of this court and held that his petition was completely untenable. Justice Prathiba M Singh dismissed the petition with costs of Rs 20,000 to be deposited with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee, failing which the man’s defence shall stand closed before the slum authorities.
Initially, the landlady had filed a suit in the trial court seeking eviction of the tenant from her property in Sabzi Mandi’s Ghanta Ghar, but it was dismissed. In the suit, the tenant had taken a defence that the civil suit was barred without obtaining a NOC from the slum clearance authority.
In order to obtain the NOC and permission for filing of the suit, the landlady preferred a petition under The Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act and the tenant moved an application seeking the summoning of several witnesses, including court staff of the trial court where his cases were pending.
As the application was dismissed, the tenant filed an appeal before the Financial Commissioner which also rejected it. He challenged that order before the high court on the ground that the tenant was entitled to summon the official witnesses for the purposes of proving his case before the slum authority.