The Supreme Court in a judgment has said materialism and the quest for personal gains among litigants post-Independence has led them to “take shelter of falsehood, misrepresentation and suppression of facts in court proceedings”.
In a scathing view of the “consistent effort by the litigants to misrepresent the court wherever they can”, the judgment said “in the last 40 years, values have gone down and now a litigant can go to any extent to mislead the court. They have no respect for the truth.”
“Truth constituted an integral part of the justice-delivery system in the pre-Independence era, however, post-Independence period has seen drastic changes in our value system… Materialism has overshadowed the old ethos and the quest for personal gain has become so intense that those involved in litigation do not hesitate to take shelter of falsehood, misrepresentation and suppression of facts in the court proceedings,” a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal said in a judgment on January 19.
The verdict was based on a petition filed in a narcotics case for the grant of bail. While the case was pending in the apex court, the accused-petitioner had moved the Orissa High Court and secured bail. The accused did this without informing the High Court that a plea for bail was pending in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was also not informed by the accused that he had already got bail. The apex court had even issued notice in the case.
The judgment said the petitioner had “put under the carpet” one of the cherished basic values of Indian society for centuries, that is, satya (truth). Justice Bindal said the apex court could very well cancel the bail of the accused. Instead, the top court ordered the accused to pay a token cost of ₹10,000.
Justice Bindal said the courts have evolved a principle to meet the challenges posed by “this new breed of litigants”.
“Now it is well settled that a litigant, who attempts to pollute the stream of justice or who touches the pure fountain of justice with tainted hands, is not entitled to any relief, interim or final… Suppression of material facts from the court of law, is actually playing fraud with the court. The maxim supressio veri, expression faisi, i.e. suppression of the truth is equivalent to the expression of falsehood, gets attracted,” the judgment observed.
The court laid down that bail pleas henceforth must mandatorily mention details and copies of orders passed in the earlier bail applications and the status of any pending bail applications before any court. In case none were pending, a clear statement to that effect had to be made.
The court directed that it was the duty of the investigating officers to apprise the State counsel of any previous orders regarding bail.
The Bench said falsehoods in litigation was “nothing but degradation of moral values in the society, may be because of our education system”.
“Now we are more happy to hear anything except truth; read anything except truth; speak anything except truth and believe anything except truth. Someone rightly said that lies are very sweet, while truth is bitter, that is why most people prefer telling lies,” Justice Bindal wrote.
