Madhya Pradesh High Court warns litigant of ₹10 lakh costs for seeking same relief after first plea was closed

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently cautioned a litigant for pursuing the same relief in a matter that had already been resolved [Arjundas Nebhnani v State]. .The Court said that it amounted to a clear abuse of process of the Court and said that it was proposing to impose ₹10 lakh as costs on the petitioner. It sought the response of the petitioner to the same and posted the case for further consideration next week. "We do not think that such petition could be entertained. Therefore, we propose to dismiss the petition by imposing a cost of ₹10 lakh. The petitioner to submit on the same. Call next week," the order passed on July 17 said.A bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra passed the order after noting that the petitioner before the Court appeared to be trying to misuse the law and exert undue pressure on the respondents."This is a clear case of abuse of the process of Court," the Court remarked, in its brief order dated July 17. .The petitioner had earlier filed a writ petition in 2017 seeking similar reliefs, which was disposed of on May 19, 2017, due to the availability of an alternative remedy, the Court noted.The petitioner then pursued the alternative remedy leading to proceedings that ended with an order on February 19, 2019. An appeal and a revision plea filed by the litigant against this order were also rejected.Despite this, the High Court found that the petitioner tried to file a fresh case before the Court seeking the same relief again..In its order, the bench pointed out that the parties, the land in dispute, and the prayers were all the same. Against this backdrop, the Court opined that entertaining such a petition will be inappropriate..The matter will be taken up next week. The petitioner has been asked to file his response by then. .Advocate Rohit Raghuvanshi appeared for the petitioner, Arjundas Nebhnani.Senior Advocate Naman Nagrath along with Advocate Jubin Prasad and Advocate Amit Seth appeared for respondents. .[Read Order]