The Rajasthan assembly on Monday (21 September 2015) passed a legislation to curb vexatious litigation, becoming the fifth state in India to do so. The Rajasthan Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Bill, 2015, was passed by voice vote, to cover both civil and criminal cases in the high court and subordinate courts.
Introducing the bill, Law and Legal Affairs Minister Rajendra Singh Rathore said: “Rajasthan will be the fifth state to have such an act after Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.”
As per the Bill, it has been experienced since long that tendency of filing vexatious litigation is increasing. The Courts have also shown their anguish on the tendency by imposing heavy cost on vexatious litigants. Vexatious litigants persistently file baseless cases and misuse the process of law in the quest of settling their matters on their whims. Vexatious litigation not only harasses, mentally and economically, the innocent and law-abiding people but also strains already overburdened judicial system. These unwarranted and baseless cases consume valuable time of the courts which otherwise could be utilized to hear and decide genuine matters. Thus, vexatious litigation is also a cause of delay in imparting justice.
“Over 2.28 lakh cases are presently pending in the Rajasthan High Court, and almost 10-15 percent fall under this category,” said Rathore.
As per Section 2 of this Act, a declaration of a person as a vexatious litigant can be made by the High Court on the basis of an application for this purpose by (a) the Advocate General, or (b) by the Registrar General of the High Court, or (c) with the permission of the High Court, by a person against whom another person has instituted or conducted proceedings, civil or criminal. If, on an application filed in this manner, the High Court is satisfied that any person has habitually and without any reasonable ground instituted vexatious proceedings, civil or criminal, in any court whether against the same person or against different persons, the High Court may, after giving the person who has instituted such proceedings, an opportunity of being heard, declare that person as a vexatious litigant.
As per Section 3 of this Act, leave of the Court would be necessary for vexatious litigant to institute or continue any civil or criminal proceedings. It says that when the High Court declares a person as a vexatious litigant, it shall also order that – (a) no proceedings, civil or criminal, shall be instituted by the said person in the High Court or any other court subordinate to the High Court; and (b) no proceedings, civil or criminal, if already instituted by the said person in the High Court or any other court subordinate to the High Court, shall be continued by him, without obtaining leave of the appropriate Court or the appropriate Judge. Some exceptions to this have also been mentioned in the Act.
It has further been provided in the Act that permission shall not be granted unless the appropriate Court or the appropriate Judge, as the case may be, is satisfied that the proceedings are not an abuse of the process of the Court and that there is prima facie ground in the proceedings proposed to be instituted or continued by the person declared as a vexatious litigant.
