The court had heard their arguments for a period of about 18 working days and rejected the submission of the parties that finality to all the litigations.
Dealing sternly with the "unscrupulous litigants with money power" for abusing the judicial process, the Supreme Court has slapped a fine of Rs 75 lakh on three companies, including a German firm, for indulging in multiple litigations in a dispute related to purchase of shares for past 18 years.
"We believe that it is only the parties who are to be blamed for the state of affairs. This case, in our view, is a classic example of the abuse of the judicial process by unscrupulous litigants with money power, all in the name of legal rights by resorting to half-truths, misleading representations and suppression of facts.
"Each and every party is guilty of one or the other of the above-mentioned misconducts. It can be demonstrated (by a more elaborate explanation but we believe the facts narrated so far would be sufficient to indicate) but we do not wish to waste any more time in these matters," a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said and imposed a cost of Rs 25 lakh each on a German company Messer Griesham GmbH(MGG), Goyal Gases Ltd (GGL) and Bombay Oxygen Corporation Ltd (BOCL) owned by Shyam Madanmohan Ruia and brothers.
The court had heard their arguments for a period of about 18 working days and rejected the submission of the parties that finality to all the litigations.
"We ... deem it appropriate to impose exemplary costs quantified at Rs 25,00,000 to be paid by each of the three parties i.e. GGL, MGG and Ruias," the bench said in a judgement recently and ordered that the amount is to be paid to National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) as compensation for the loss of judicial time of this country and the same may be utilised by NLSA to fund poor litigants to pursue their claims before this Court in deserving cases.
In 1995, the German firm MGG entered into a share purchase and cooperation agreement with the shareholders of GGL. Subsequently, MGG entered into a similar agreement with BOCL, in a move that was objected to by the GGL.
The legal battles ensued among them which went on for nearly two decades at various judicial fora, including the apex court.
"The net effect of all the litigation is this. For the last 18 years, the litigation is going on. Considerable judicial time of this country is spent on this litigation. The conduct of none of the parties to this litigation is wholesome," the apex court said.
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