Suppression Of Material Facts Is Actually Playing Fraud With The Court: Punjab & Haryana High Court Imposes ₹1L Cost On Litigant

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has imposed ₹1,00,000/- cost on litigant in a Cheque Dishonour Case for suppressing material fact that revision petition challenging summoning order was dismissed.

The Court was considering a Petition seeking quashing of complaint filed under Section138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, summoning order and the entire proceedings thereof.

The single bench of Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu observed, "A bare perusal of above extract reveals that revision petition filed by petitioners was dismissed by learned Revisional Court on 25.09.2019, but the same has not been disclosed for the reasons best known to them; thus, there is an active concealment on their part.......A fortiori, “now it is well settled law 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 Petitioner was represented by Advocate Vaibhav Tanwar while the Respondent was represented by Senior Advocate Gourav Chopra.

Facts of the Case
Counsel for the Petitioner contended that the impugned summoning order was passed on the same very day, when the present complaint was filed and that too, without any preliminary enquiry and/or examination of any witness(es). It was further contended that the procedure contained under Section 202 Cr.P.C, which is mandatory in nature, was not complied with and that the matter in controversy is already pending before the Chhatisgarh High Court. Lastly, it was contended that Petitioners were not responsible for act or conduct of business of the Respondent-company and as such, issuance of process against Petitioners was not sustainable in the eyes of law. 

Contrarily, Senior Counsel for the Respondent contended that the Petitioners have concealed the true and material facts in as much as they have not disclosed the filing of revision petition against the impugned order of notice of accusation before the Additional Sessions Judge which was ultimately dismissed way-back in 2019.

Reasoning By Court

The Court accepted the submissions of Senior Counsel for the Respondent and observed, "A fortiori, “now it is well settled law 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 Latin maxim supressio veri, expressio falsi i.e. suppression of the truth is equivalent to the expression of falsehood, gets attracted”, vide para 7, “Kusha Duruka Versus The State of Odisha” (Criminal Appeal No.303 of 2024, decided on 19.01.2024 by Hon’ble the Supreme Court)."

It further mentioned Supreme Court's ruling in “Dalip Singh Versus State of Uttar Pradesh and others” and in “Kishore Samrite Versus State of Uttar Pradesh and others”.

".....Court is of the considered opinion that petitioners were bound to disclose the factum of dismissal of their revision petition on 25.09.20219 by learned Revisional Court; but they knowingly and intentionally failed to do so. Thus, considering the ratio of law laid down in “ Kusha Duruka’s case (supra), Dalip Singh’s case (supra) and “ Kishore Samrite's case (supra) , there remains no doubt that petitioners have not approached with clean hands while invoking the inherent jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C.; rather suppressed the material facts with bad faith," the Court observed.

The Petition was accordingly dismissed with cost.

Cause Title: M/s Dynamic (CG) Equipments Pvt. Ltd. vs. JCB India Limited 2025:PHHC:047159

Appearances:

Petitioner- Advocate Vaibhav Tanwar

Respondent- Senior Advocate Gourav Chopra, Advocate Dr. Anand Bishnoi, Advocate Vardaan Seth

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