Case: Amar Singh Vs. Union of India &amp; Others

and fairly the facts, and the penalty by which the Court enforces that obligation is that if it finds out that the facts have been fully and fairly stated to it, the Court will set aside any action which it has taken on the faith of the imperfect statement." 58. It is one of the fundamental principles of jurisprudence that litigants must observe total clarity and candour in their pleadings and especially when it contains a prayer for injunction. A prayer for injunction, which is an equitable remedy, must be governed by principles of `uberrima fide. 59. The aforesaid requirement of coming to Court with clean hands has been repeatedly reiterated by this Court in a large number of cases. Some of which may be noted, they are: Hari Narain v. Badri Das - AIR 1963 SC 1558 , Welcome Hotel and others v. State of A.P. and others - (1983) 4 SCC 575 , G. Narayanaswamy Reddy (Dead) by LRs. and another v. Government of Karnatka and another - JT 1991(3) SC 12 : (1991) 3 SCC 261 , S.P. Chengalvaraya Naidu (Dead) by LRs. v. Jagannath (Dead) by LRs. and others - JT 1993 (6) SC 331 : (1994) 1 SCC 1 , A.V. Papayya Sastry and others v. Government of A.P. and others - JT 2007 (4) SC 186 : (2007) 4 SCC 221 , Prestige Lights Limited v. SBI - JT 2007(10) SC 218 : (2007) 8 SCC 449 , Sunil Poddar and others v. Union Bank of India - JT 2008(1) SC 308 : (2008) 2 SCC 326 , K.D.Sharma v. SAIL and others - JT 2008 (8) SC 57 : (2008) 12 SCC 481 , G. Jayashree and others v. Bhagwandas S. Patel and others - JT 2009(2) SC 71 : (2009) 3 SCC 141 , Dalip Singh v. State of U.P. and others - JT 2009 (15) SC 201 : (2010) 2 SCC 114. 60. In the last noted case of Dalip Singh (supra), this Court has given this concept a new dimension which has a far reaching effect. We, therefore, repeat those principles here again: "For many centuries Indian society cherished two basic values of life i.e. "satya"(truth) and "ahimsa (non-violence), Mahavir, Gautam Budha and Mahatma Gandhi guided the people to ingrain these values in their daily life. Truth constituted an integral part of the justice-delivery system which was in vogue in the pre- independence era and the people used to feel proud to tell truth in the courts irrespective of the consequences. However, post-Independence period has seen drastic changes in our value system. The materialism has overshadowed the old ethos and the quest for personal gain has become so intense that those involved in litigation do not hesitate to take shelter of falsehood, misrepresentation and suppression of facts in the court proceedings.In the last 40 years, a new creed of litigants has cropped up. Those who belong to this creed do not have any respect for truth. They shamelessly resort to falsehood and unethical means for achieving their goals. In order to meet the challenge posed by this new creed of litigants, the courts have, from time to time, evolved new rules and it is now well established 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." 61. However, this Court is constrained to observe that those principles are honoured more in breach than in their observance. 62. Following these principles, this Court has no hesitation in holding that the instant writ petition is an attempt by the petitioner to mislead the Court on the basis of frivolous allegations and by suppression of material facts as pointed out and discussed above. 63. In view of such incorrect presentation of facts, this court had issued notice and also subsequently passed the injunction order which is still continuing. 64. This Court, therefore, dismisses the writ petition and vacates the interim order and is not called upon to decide the merits, if any, of the petitioners case. No case of tapping of telephone has been made out against the statutory authorities in view of the criminal case which is going on and especially in view of the petitioners stand that he is satisfied with the investigation in that case. The petitioner has withdrawn its case against the respondent No.7. In that view of the matter this Court makes it clear that the petitioner, if so advised, may proceed against the service provider, respondent No.8, before the appropriate forum, in accordance with law. This Court, however, makes it clear that it does not make any observation on the merits of the case in the event the petitioner initiates any proceeding against respondent No.8.65. This court wants to make one thing clear i.e. perfunctory and slipshod affidavits which are not consistent either with Order XIX Rule 3 of the CPC or with Order XI Rules 5 and 13 of the Supreme Court Rules should not be entertained by this Court.66. In fact three Constitution Bench judgments of this Court in Purushottam Jog Naik (supra), Barium Chemicals Ltd. (supra) and A.K.K. Nambiar (supra) and in several other judgments pointed out the importance of filing affidavits following the discipline of the provision in the Code and the said rules.67. These rules, reiterated by this Court time and again, are aimed at protecting the Court against frivolous litigation must not be diluted or ignored. However, in practice they are frequently flouted by the litigants and often ignored by the Registry of this Court. The instant petition is an illustration of the same. If the rules for affirming affidavit according to Supreme Court were followed, it would have been difficult for the petitioner to file this petition and so much of judicial time would have been saved. This case is not isolated instance. There are innumerable cases which have been filed with affidavits affirmed in a slipshod manner.

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

Explanation:
0[ds]24. In the instant case, the petitioner invoked the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 32, without filing a proper affidavit as required in terms of Order XIX Rule 3 of the Code. Apart from the fact that the petitioner invoked Article 32, the nature of the challenge in his petition is very serious in the sense that he is alleging an attempt by the government of intercepting his phone and he is further alleging that in making this attempt the government is acting on extraneous considerations, and is virtually acting in furtherance of the design of the ruling party. It is, therefore, imperative that before making such an allegation the petitioner should be careful, circumspect and file a proper affidavit in support of his averment in the petition.In view of such disclosures in the affidavit of the Police authorities as also in the affidavit filed by Mr. Chopra on behalf of Delhi Administration, it appeared strange to this court how the service provider, respondent no. 8 could act on the basis of communications dated 22.10.2005 and 9.11.2005. To this Court, it appeared that any reasonable person or a reasonable body of persons or an institution which is discharging public duty as a service provider, before acting on an order like the one dated 9.11.2005, would at least carefully read its contents. Even from a casual reading of the purported communication dated 9.11.2005, containing so many gross mistakes, one would reasonably be suspicious of the authenticity of its text.Considering the materials on record, this Court is of the opinion that it is no doubt true that the service provider has to act on an urgent basis and has to act in public interest. But in a given case, like the present one, where the impugned communication dated 9.11.2005 is full of gross mistakes, the service provider while immediately acting upon the same, should simultaneously verify the authenticity of the same from the author of the document. This Court is of the opinion that the service provider has to act as a responsible agency and cannot act on any communication. Sanctity and regularity in official communication in such matters must be maintained especially when the service provider is taking the serious step of intercepting the telephone conversation of a person and by doing so is invading the privacy right of the person concerned and which is a fundamental right protected under the Constitution, as has been held by this Court.39. Therefore, while there is urgent necessity on the part of the service provider to act on a communication, at the same time, the respondent No.8 is equally duty bound to immediately verify the authenticity of such communication if on a reasonable reading of the same, it appears to any person, acting bona fide, that such communication, with innumerable mistakes, falls clearly short of the tenor of a genuine official communication. Therefore, the explanation of the service provider is not acceptable to this Court. If the service provider could have shown, which it has not done in the present case, that it had tried to ascertain from the author of the communication, its genuineness, but had not received any response or that the authority had accepted the communication as genuine, the service providers duty would have been over. But the mere stand that there is no provision under the rule to do so is a lame excuse, especially having regard to the public element involved in the working of the service provider and the consequential effect it has on the fundamental right of the person concerned.Even though in the order of this Court dated 27th February, 2006, there is an observation that respondent No. 7 has been impleaded unnecessarily, the said respondent has not been deleted and in the amended cause title also, respondent No. 7 remains impleaded. The averments against the said respondent were not withdrawn by the petitioner.It therefore appears that the petitioner has been shifting his stand to suit his convenience. In 2006, the gravamen of the petitioners grievances was against the respondent no. 7, and the basis of his petition was the information that he derived from the said Anurag Singh. On the basis of such a petition, he invoked the jurisdiction of this Court and an interim order was issued in his favour, which is still continuing.Apart from the aforesaid, in the writ petition which was filed on 21st January, 2006, there is no mention of the fact that the petitioner gave a statement under section 161, Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with the investigation arising out of FIR lodged on 30th December, 2005. From the records of the case it appears the petitioner gave 161 statement on 13th January, 2006. In the writ petition there is a complete suppression of the aforesaid fact. A statement under Section 161 is certainly a material fact in a police investigation in connection with an FIR. The investigation is to find out the genuineness of those very documents on the basis of which the writ petition was moved. In that factual context, total suppression in the writ petition of the fact that the petitioner gave a 161 statement in that investigation is, in our judgment, suppression of a very material fact.52. It is, therefore, clear that writ petition is frivolous and is speculative in character. This Court is of the opinion that the so called legal questions on tapping of telephone cannot be gone into on the basis of a petition which is so weak in its foundation.This Court, therefore, dismisses the writ petition and vacates the interim order and is not called upon to decide the merits, if any, of the petitioners case. No case of tapping of telephone has been made out against the statutory authorities in view of the criminal case which is going on and especially in view of the petitioners stand that he is satisfied with the investigation in that case. The petitioner has withdrawn its case against the respondent No.7. In that view of the matter this Court makes it clear that the petitioner, if so advised, may proceed against the service provider, respondent No.8, before the appropriate forum, in accordance with law. This Court, however, makes it clear that it does not make any observation on the merits of the case in the event the petitioner initiates any proceeding against respondent No.8.65. This court wants to make one thing clear i.e. perfunctory and slipshod affidavits which are not consistent either with Order XIX Rule 3 of the CPC or with Order XI Rules 5 and 13 of the Supreme Court Rules should not be entertained by this Court.66. In fact three Constitution Bench judgments of this Court in Purushottam Jog Naik (supra), Barium Chemicals Ltd. (supra) and A.K.K. Nambiar (supra) and in several other judgments pointed out the importance of filing affidavits following the discipline of the provision in the Code and the said rules.67. These rules, reiterated by this Court time and again, are aimed at protecting the Court against frivolous litigation must not be diluted or ignored. However, in practice they are frequently flouted by the litigants and often ignored by the Registry of this Court. The instant petition is an illustration of the same. If the rules for affirming affidavit according to Supreme Court were followed, it would have been difficult for the petitioner to file this petition and so much of judicial time would have been saved. This case is not isolated instance. There are innumerable cases which have been filed with affidavits affirmed in a slipshod manner.