Madurai
The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has deprecated the practice of litigants trying to restore lapsed cause of action by sending representations to the authorities and thereafter filing writ petitions before the court seeking a direction to authorities to consider the representation. It has become a recent trend, the court said.
Justice S.M. Subramaniam observed that the modus operandi of the litigants, with the assistance of the legal brain, involved sending representations to the authorities, immediately followed by filing a writ petition, with a prayer to consider the representation.
The court, which was hearing a petition where a representation was sent after a lapse of 19 years, observed that in such cases it would be difficult for the authorities even to trace service particulars of the writ petitioner. The litigants are attempting to re-adjudicate the issues which were settled long back. This back-door approach cannot be encouraged, the judge said.
All persons, including government employees, are expected to redress their grievances within a reasonable period of time from the date of arising of cause of action. Once an aggrieved person allows the cause of action to lapse, the court will not entertain any writ petition thereafter. Mere submission of representation after a number of years would not provide any cause of action for the aggrieved to file a writ of mandamus, the judge said.
Such writ proceedings filed with an intention to achieve the goal in an indirect manner by illegal or irregular means can never be encouraged and entertained. All such litigations are to be rejected with heavy costs. The High Court being the temple of justice must ensure that speedy justice is provided to the needy and those who approach the court with clean hands by establishing their legal rights, the court said.
The court dismissed the writ petition filed by A. Kasthuribai from Dindigul, a Hand Weaving Instructor who retired in 1992. She approached the court in 2011 seeking a direction to authorities to revise her pension benefits.
