Frivolous pleas eat away time meant for case of national importance: SC

A bench made the strong observation after taking up an application for a case that was already disposed of in March

The Supreme Court on Tuesday disapproved filing of several frivolous petitions before it, saying that they render the court dysfunctional besides eating into the judges' time meant for taking up matters of national importance.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah made the strong observation after taking up an application for a case that was already disposed of in March.

The final order in the matter has already been passed by the court yet an application has been filed, the bench pointed out.

"What is this? This is how the Supreme Court is being made dysfunctional," the bench said while pulling up the counsel for filing the application citing a trivial issue.

Noting that 95 per cent of cases before the vacation bench of the top court are frivolous, Chandrachud said: "We should not encourage this."

"Yesterday, I had to finalise an order in a suo motu matter related to Covid-19, which I could not do, as I had to read up the files for today's hearings," Chandrachud said, as he reiterated that the institution should not consider frivolous matters.

"Serious matters must be given time," he added.

As the counsel still pleaded to give him time to argue, the bench asked him to respect the sanctity of the court, as such hearings not only waste resources, they also send out a wrong impression that the judges have a lot of time.

"This is also the taxpayers' money which you are wasting," the bench said.