Frivolous cases clogging system: SC

The apex court has noted that frivolous, vexatious and speculative litigations have been unduly burdening courts giving artificial rise to pendency of cases which in turn clogs the justice system and delays the resolution of genuine disputes.

"Such litigation is required to be rooted out of the system and strongly discouraged and one of the ways to curb such practice of instituting frivolous and vexatious cases is by imposing costs under Order XXVIII, Rule 3 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980.

"[This rule] lays the foundation for expeditious justice and promotes a smart legal system, enhancing access to justice by entertaining genuine claims," said a two-page order on a property case, authored by SC's senior puisne judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.

The order noted that there are about 2.2 million (2,255,295) cases pending before all courts in the country—including a sizable number of frivolous cases.

Talking with reference to the appeal filed against an Islamabad High Court (IHC) order, the verdict said the bench was not able to take any exception to the IHC judgment and was of the view that the petition was completely frivolous and vexatious.

"The process of the court has been abused by the petitioner just to pressure the other side and delay the matter on one pretext or the other, thereby depriving her siblings and mother from the lawful auction of the said suit property. Therefore, it does not warrant any interference.

"In view of the aforesaid, leave is, therefore, declined and this petition is dismissed with costs of Rs50,000 to be paid to the respondents and in case of its failure, the same shall be recoverable as a money decree," it added.

The case

A petitioner filed a lawsuit seeking the division, possession, and injunctions related to a two-story house in Islamabad. The house originally belonged to the father of the parties involved.

On January 13, 2020, a trial court issued an initial decision and appointed a local commission to handle the case. The trial court set a reserve price for the property, but the petitioner objected to this on March 16, 2020.

The court then appointed an auctioneer who conducted the auction and submitted a final report on March 18, 2023. The petitioner also objected to this report. The trial court rejected the petitioner's objections on April 12, 2023.

The petitioner appealed this decision, and the appeal was allowed on July 8, 2023. Later, one of the parties filed a revision petition with the IHC, which was allowed on July 2, 2024. The petitioner later filed a petition for leave to appeal this decision.

Frivolous litigants

Speaking in Islamabad at an event held at the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) in January this year, Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa had also emphasized that the judiciary must impose "substantial" costs on people who continually initiate frivolous litigations just because they have nothing to lose or because they want to gain time.

"Of course, this [imposition of cost] has to be done in a way that is uniform among all [judges]. ," he had added.