A litigant can't be allowed to play hide and seek: HC

Srinagar, June 7: Observing that a litigant cannot be allowed to play ‘hide and seek’, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh Friday allowed an appeal against its single Judge’s order of 2016 whereby it had directed a woman police constable to resume her duty and asked authorities to pass orders for release of some monetary benefits in her favour for the period she remained out of service

“A writ remedy is an equitable one,” a division bench of Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice M A Chowdhary said while allowing the government's appeal against the single bench order.

“While exercising extraordinary power, a writ court certainly bears in mind the conduct of the party, who invokes the jurisdiction of the Court”, the court said, adding, “Litigant before the Writ Court must come with clean hands, clean heart, clean mind and clean objective.

While the court observed that a litigant should disclose all facts without suppressing anything, it said: “Litigant cannot be allowed to play ‘hide and seek’ or to ‘pick and choose’ the facts he or she likes to disclose and to suppress/conceal other facts”. Suppression of concealment of material facts, it said, is not an advocacy.

The court underscored that “It is a jugglery, manipulation, maneuvering or misrepresentation, which has no place in equitable and prerogative jurisdiction”.

“If a litigant does not disclose all the material facts fairly and truly or states them in a distorted manner and misleads the Court, the Court has inherent power to refuse to proceed further with the examination of the case on merits.”

The division bench noted that “it Court does not reject the petition on that ground, the Court would be failing in its duty”

“There is a compelling need to take a serious view in such matters to ensure purity and grace in the administration of justice.”