Case: Firm of Harbanslal Jagmohandas &amp; Another Vs. Prabhudas Shivlal

making material statements and setting forth grounds in applications for special leave, care must be taken not to make any statements which are inaccurate, untrue or misleading. In dealing with applications for special leave, the Court naturally takes statements of fact and grounds of fact contained in the petitions at their face value and it would be unfair to betray the confidence of the Court by making statements which are untrue and misleading. That is why we have come to the conclusion that in the present case, special leave granted to the appellant ought to be revoked."In Rajabhai Abdul Rehman v. Vasudev Dhanjibhai, (1964) 3 SCR 480 = (AIR 1964 SC 345 ) this Court after referring to the previous decision, cited above, observed as follows:"Exercise of the jurisdiction of the Court under Art. 136 of the Constitution is discretionary: it is exercised sparingly and in exceptional cases, when a substantial question of law falls to be determined or where it appears to the Court that interference by this Court is necessary to remedy serious injustice. A party who approaches this Court invoking the exercise of this overriding discretion of the Court must come with clean hands. If there appears on his part any attempt to overreach or mislead the Court by false or untrue statements or by withholding true information which would have a bearing on the question of exercise of the discretion, the Court would be justified in refusing to exercise the discretion or if the discretion has been exercised in revoking the leave to appeal granted even at the time of hearing of the appeal."In Sita Bai v. Soni Vanji Wani, Civil Appeal No. 982 of 1965 D/- 25-4-1968 (SC) this Court revoked special leave on the ground that on a matter of importance the appellants therein had made untrue statements before this Court. Recently in Shankar Madhoji Nemade v. Chisuji Janaji, Civil Appeal No. 85 of 1967 D/- 8-9-1970=(reported in AIR 1971 SC 281 ) this Court reiterated the principles laid down in the above decisions. But on facts it was held that there has been no untrue or false averment regarding material facts.16. Having due regard to the principles laid down above and applying them to the case on hand, we are of the opinion that the request of the respondent for revoking special leave granted has to be rejected. We are also satisfied that there has been no false or untrue averment on material facts made by the petitioners for the purpose of misleading this Court.Paragraph No. 2 of the special leave petition refers to the conflict between the Gujarat and Bombay High Courts with regard to the scope and applicability of S. 12 (3) (a) of the Bombay Rent Act. The contrary view taken by the Gujarat High Court is the one reported in Chunilal Shivlal v. Chimanlal Nagindas, (1966) 7 Guj LR 945 which has been followed by the two subordinate courts. No doubt the High Court has summarily rejected the Civil Revision Petition.Therefore, what is stated in paragraph No. 2 is a pure statement of the legal position and factually it is correct. We have also referred to the grounds Nos. 2, 3 and 16 which are purely legal contentions. The contention of Mr. Shroff, learned counsel for respondent is that a reading of these grounds gives the impression that the attention of the Gujarat High Court was drawn to the Full Bench decision of the Bombay High Court when the Civil Revision Petition was disposed of. Assuming it is so, in our opinion, it cannot be stated that there is any mis-statement or untrue averment contained in these grounds. It must be remembered that they are legal contentions taken in the grounds attacking the judgment of the Gujarat High Court. We fail to see in what other manner a party can draw the attention of this Court to a conflict between two High Courts with regard to the interpretation of a substantially similar provision of a statute. It is needless to state that if a party wants to have a particular legal position settled in a High Court reconsidered on the basis of a different decision on identical point by the other High Court and specially with regard to the same statute, he must draw the attention of the learned Judge to that decision bearing on the point in question. This will be a very proper thing for a party to do. But that is far from saying that if he has omitted to place a particular decision of another High Court on an identical matter, but nevertheless when the judgment so given is before a higher Tribunal, he should not be allowed to challenge the decision on the ground that the other High Courts have taken a different view.For instance, if a matter is disposed of by a Division Bench of the same High Court and a similar matter is disposed of by a Single Judge on the next day without being made aware of the decision of the Division Bench in our opinion, it will be perfectly open to the party aggrieved by the judgment of the Single Judge, when filing an appeal against that judgment to urge that it is contrary to the Division Bench decision of the same court though that judgment was not brought to the notice of the Single Judge.The grounds taken on legal points should not, in our opinion, be confused or mixed up with the averments regarding material facts or matters of importance.17. We are of the opinion that none of the statements in the special leave petition relied on by Mr. Shroff can be considered to be untrue or false statements on the material facts or matters of importance. Therefore, the prayer of the respondent for revoking the special leave granted will have to be rejected. The C. M. P. No. 2282 of 1971 is allowed and the prayer in C. M. P. No. 854 of 1971 will stand suitably amended.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 1

Explanation:
1[ds]9. It, therefore, appears that the petitioners have completely misled this Honble Court in regard to the true facts and have thereby obtained from this Honble Court Special Leave to Appeal, which in all probability, this Honble Court would not have been pleased to grant had the petitioners placed before this Honble Court true facts of theit will be seen from the material averments of the respondent that his bone of contention regarding the statements of fact by the petitioners is that the statements contained in the relevant paragraphs of the special leave petition, adverted to earlier, give the impression that the Full Bench decision of the Bombay High Court was placed before the Single Judge of the Gujarat High Court when C. R. P. No. 1353 of 1970 was being disposed of. That the said judgment was not brought to the notice of the High Court is clear from the fact that no grounds were taken in the Civil Revision Petition regarding any conflict between the Gujarat and the Bombay High Courts on identical provisions of thecan be no controversy that if the petitioners have made an untrue averment regarding material statements or false statement of matters of importance or a deliberate untrue statement of material facts so as to mislead this Court or if there has been any suppression on any point of importance, the special leave granted by this Court will have to be revoked.Having due regard to the principles laid down above and applying them to the case on hand, we are of the opinion that the request of the respondent for revoking special leave granted has to be rejected. We are also satisfied that there has been no false or untrue averment on material facts made by the petitioners for the purpose of misleading this Court.Paragraph No. 2 of the special leave petition refers to the conflict between the Gujarat and Bombay High Courts with regard to the scope and applicability of S. 12 (3) (a) of the Bombay Rent Act. The contrary view taken by the Gujarat High Court is the one reported in Chunilal Shivlal v. Chimanlal Nagindas, (1966) 7 Guj LR 945 which has been followed by the two subordinate courts. No doubt the High Court has summarily rejected the Civil Revision Petition.Therefore, what is stated in paragraph No. 2 is a pure statement of the legal position and factually it is correct. We have also referred to the grounds Nos. 2, 3 and 16 which are purely legal contentions. The contention of Mr. Shroff, learned counsel for respondent is that a reading of these grounds gives the impression that the attention of the Gujarat High Court was drawn to the Full Bench decision of the Bombay High Court when the Civil Revision Petition was disposed of. Assuming it is so, in our opinion, it cannot be stated that there is any mis-statement or untrue averment contained in these grounds. It must be remembered that they are legal contentions taken in the grounds attacking the judgment of the Gujarat High Court. We fail to see in what other manner a party can draw the attention of this Court to a conflict between two High Courts with regard to the interpretation of a substantially similar provision of a statute. It is needless to state that if a party wants to have a particular legal position settled in a High Court reconsidered on the basis of a different decision on identical point by the other High Court and specially with regard to the same statute, he must draw the attention of the learned Judge to that decision bearing on the point in question. This will be a very proper thing for a party to do. But that is far from saying that if he has omitted to place a particular decision of another High Court on an identical matter, but nevertheless when the judgment so given is before a higher Tribunal, he should not be allowed to challenge the decision on the ground that the other High Courts have taken a different view.For instance, if a matter is disposed of by a Division Bench of the same High Court and a similar matter is disposed of by a Single Judge on the next day without being made aware of the decision of the Division Bench in our opinion, it will be perfectly open to the party aggrieved by the judgment of the Single Judge, when filing an appeal against that judgment to urge that it is contrary to the Division Bench decision of the same court though that judgment was not brought to the notice of the Single Judge.The grounds taken on legal points should not, in our opinion, be confused or mixed up with the averments regarding material facts or matters of importance.17. We are of the opinion that none of the statements in the special leave petition relied on by Mr. Shroff can be considered to be untrue or false statements on the material facts or matters of importance. Therefore, the prayer of the respondent for revoking the special leave granted will have to be rejected. The C. M. P. No. 2282 of 1971 is allowed and the prayer in C. M. P. No. 854 of 1971 will stand suitably amended.