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Ambalal Parihar vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 946Decided 16 Oct 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 3233 of 2023
Abhay S. Oka · Pankaj Mithal

Background

The appellant had six FIRs registered against three respondents, who also faced two more FIRs from other complainants: eight FIRs in total. When the respondents' petitions to quash these FIRs came up before a designated criminal-matters judge who declined to grant them interim relief, the respondents instead filed a separate civil writ petition asking for all eight FIRs to be clubbed together and for protection from arrest, without informing the original complainants, and got interim protection from a different judge on the civil side.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found this to be a "classic case of forum hunting": a deliberate strategy to bypass the judge assigned to hear the criminal matters (who had refused relief) by dressing up what was really a criminal issue as a civil writ petition, which is not the correct procedure and violates the roster discipline set by the Chief Justice. The Court dismissed the civil writ petition entirely, holding that a judge cannot take up a case not assigned to them under the roster and should have converted or transferred the matter to the correct bench instead of granting relief. It imposed Rs. 50,000 in costs on the respondents, payable to the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority, and directed that this order be placed before the court handling the actual quashing petitions.

Lesson Learnt

Litigants cannot dodge an unfavourable interim order by re-filing the same relief through a different type of petition before a different judge. Courts treat such "forum hunting" as a serious abuse of the judicial process and will penalise it with costs.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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