HC slams Medical College for 'Bench Hunting', upholds Rs 10 lakh costs
Jodhpur: Slamming a Rajasthan based medical institute for "Bench Hunting", the Principal Bench of Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur recently upheld the Singe Judge bench order directing the institute to pay a heavy cost of Rs 10 lakh.
Therefore, denying to reduce the amount of cost, the HC bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwani observed, "Though, learned counsel for the appellant prayed that in the alternative the cost amount may be reduced, having upheld the order of the learned Single Judge on merits and the manner in which the appellant sought to abuse the process of law, it being an Institution and not a poor person belonging to marginalized section of the society, even in the matter of imposition of cost, we find no ground to interfere."
The matter concerned Rajasthan-based Dhanwantri Institute of Medical Science. After the plea filed by the Institute got dismissed as withdrawn from the Jaipur bench of the High Court back in April, the institute filed the second petition at the principal seat Jodhpur, seeking similar reliefs.
However the court noted that the petitioner institute didn't disclose the earlier facts concerning the plea. Besides, the affidavit in support of the second petition had been prepared on 24.04.2022.
According to the Court, this meant "that the writ petition was already prepared on 24.04.2022 while the case was pending at Jaipur Bench which came to be dismissed as withdrawn two days thereafter i.e. on 26.04.2022."
"A false statement on affidavit was also made by the appellant-writ petitioner in the second writ petition before the principal seat at Jodhpur that the petitioner has not filed any such writ petition either before this Court or before the Supreme Court of India, whereas, it is clear that a writ petition was filed at Jaipur Bench of the High Court which came to be dismissed as withdrawn on 26.04.2022. These startling facts were revealed by the respondents only while hearing on the aspect of maintainability of the writ petition," the Court further noted.
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Taking note of all these facts and circumstances, the Single Judge bench had condemned the institute "finding that the petitioner-institution was apprehensive of the fact that it may not get a favourable order from this Court at Jaipur Bench, got second petition filed by suppressing the fact of filing and withdrawal of the first petition before this Court at Jaipur Bench."
As per the latest media report by Live Law, in the original plea, the institute had prayed for directions upon State, the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, and Indian Nursing Council to restrain them from disaffiliating the petitioner institute, for setting aside certain notices related to admission along with the consequential proceedings.
Approaching the Principal Bench, the institute had also sought permission for providing B.Sc.(N), P.B.Sc., M.Sc. Course for the academic session 2021-22.
The counsel for the institute further argued before the Principal bench that the single bench had dismissed the plea without examining its merits and imposed heavy costs of Rs 10 lakh. It was argued by the counsel that the college had filed the second plea only in exercise of liberty which was granted in the first round of litigation.
However, the bench noted,
"As long as that order stands, filing of second writ petition in exercise of liberty at principal seat at Jodhpur by itself, without anything more, could not be treated as a cause to forum shopping as the appellant-writ petitioner would have filed petition either at principal seat at Jodhpur or Bench at Jaipur. The appellant-writ petitioner is an educational institute and its non inclusion, withdrawal of affiliation, that too without providing opportunity of hearing, required examination on merits."
Slamming the institute for suppressing facts, the HC bench mentioned in the order,
"It is well settled that one, who seeks to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is required to come with clean hands. The facts, as narrated hereinabove, and also noticed by the learned Single Judge clearly shows that the conduct of the appellant-writ petitioner is highly condemnable and the observation made by the learned Single Judge that the writ petitioner was engaged in bench hunting cannot be said to be without any basis."
The bench also denied reducing the amount of costs and dismissing the plea it noted,
"Though, learned counsel for the appellant prayed that in the alternative the cost amount may be reduced, having upheld the order of the learned Single Judge on merits and the manner in which the appellant sought to abuse the process of law, it being an Institution and not a poor person belonging to marginalized section of the society, even in the matter of imposition of cost, we find no ground to interfere."
To read the court order, click on the link below
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/rajasthan-hc-order-bench-hunting-183652.pdf
