The Supreme Court on Friday reproached a litigant for filing voluminous documents, running into 51 volumes, and asked if the appellant wanted to "terrorise" the top court.
"We had to get a lorry to carry your files to court," a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant told Indian Broadcasting Foundation's counsel
The court was taking up an appeal by the Foundation against the Bombay High Court order upholding TRAI's new tariff order.
"You've filed 51 volumes. We had to get a lorry to carry your files to court. Do you want to terrorise us? File small volumes if you want to be heard," the bench told the counsel.
At the outset, the Chief Justice expressed shock at the length of the pleadings and documents filed by the petitioners.
"We will not hear this. Imagine 51 volumes in one case. File one compilation and serve it on us then we will take it up," the bench said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing TRAI, submitted that he will file only a two-page affidavit.
The bench said it will not go into the matter now and posted the case for further hearing on August 18.
The matter arose out of the Bombay High Court's judgement, which partially upheld the validity of the New Tariff Order (NTO) issued by TRAI in January 2020 prescribing price ceilings on the rates charged by television channels.
In June, the High Court, while upholding the NTO, had struck down one of the pricing conditions as unconstitutional.
(Published 06 August 2021, 12:47 IST)
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