SC Enforces Special Costs on CDA for ‘Overburdening’ Court

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has imposed Rs. 500,000 special costs on the Capital Development Authority (CDA), for filing a frivolous case and overburdening the court with vexatious matters, thus delaying and denying the rightful claim to access to justice under Article 9 of the Constitution.

Justice Ayesha Malik wrote the 10-page judgment and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah signed it. The judgment was issued during the hearing of a petition by CDA against Islamabad’s High Court’s ruling based mainly on the grounds that the disputed plot in G-8 Markaz could not be sold or transferred to anyone other than the original allottee.

This frivolous litigation is also detrimental to expeditious justice, and infringes Article 37(d), Principles of Policy under the Constitution, the judge noted.

Additionally, the judgment pointed out that court time can be better spent on genuine cases than on pursuing cases that are vexatious or meritless and have been resolved between the parties.

It was also stressed that the CDA must understand that it is not their role to “fix” institutional managerial problems. The authority wanted to bring an issue of its internal affairs to the court instead of resolving it. “For what only seems to be an attempt at unduly accentuating one transfer and ignoring all the others,” the ruling stated.

However, the respondents have been subject to long-drawn litigation without fault, as the judgment stated.

This was an example of a litigant who wastes the court’s time by filing frivolous litigation, the ruling read.