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Arun Kumar Sharma v. State of Madhya Pradesh

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 826Decided 14 Jul 2025
C.A. No.-003263-003264 - 2025
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Joymalya Bagchi

Background

Three appellants approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seeking to stop a petrol pump from being set up near a residential area at Intkhedi Road, Bhopal, arguing it violated Central Pollution Control Board siting norms and that the Collector's No-Objection Certificate was improperly issued. A Joint Committee appointed by the NGT inspected the site and found the nearby "residential colonies" were actually unauthorised, that no school or hospital existed within 50 metres of the pump, and that all required permissions (PESO, Pollution Control Board, Electricity Board, Collector, etc.) had already been lawfully obtained before the case was filed. The NGT dismissed the application, and a review petition was also dismissed, prompting the present appeals to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that while the civil appeals were pending, one of the appellants had separately and quietly filed a writ petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court raising overlapping challenges to the same NOC, without informing the Supreme Court: a fact the Court held amounted to suppression of material facts and forum shopping. Comparing the grounds raised in both proceedings, the Court concluded the two cases were not genuinely distinct as claimed, and that the litigation appeared intended to serve the personal/business interests of one appellant who ran a rival business, rather than a genuine environmental concern. Because the Court had specifically warned the appellants in advance that such misconduct would lead to dismissal with costs, it dismissed the appeals and imposed exemplary costs of Rs. 50,000, while leaving the separate High Court writ petition to be decided on its own merits.

Lesson Learnt

Litigants must disclose all parallel or related proceedings to every court they approach; concealing a related case, or splitting the same grievance across multiple forums, can be treated as bad faith and result in dismissal with costs, regardless of the underlying merits of the original complaint.

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

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