Litigant cannot be permitted to browbeat the court by seeking a Bench of its choice.
Justice M.R. Shah
INTRODUCTION
Judges like other human beings are at times prone to succumb to their emotion while delivering their judgment instead of applying proper and sound reasoning to substantiate their decision. While most of the time it goes unnoticed, there are instances when it becomes too evident to be ignored by arguing counsel and justice seeking client before his bench. This change in heart while delivering judgement can be attributed to their prior personal or incidental experience of the Judge. While this unintended bias is possible this is not the case all the time. Such instances are used as a means to secure a judge who has a lenient attitude towards the litigant’s case. This practice of securing a more compassionate judge toward for the litigant is called forum shopping.
While, forum shopping predominantly relates to selection of country on the basis of laws in international transaction which appears more favourable in nature, this concept has now seeped into our own municipal legal system with clients trying to have their case presented before a judge who is considered more inclined to deliver judgement in favour of him or his class of litigant. The concept of forum shopping does not find any place in our statute books but numerous precedents and judgements delivered by Hon’ble Supreme Court and numerous High Courts has composed a basic jurisprudence around it.
SUPREME COURT AND HIGH COURTS’ VIEW ON THIS ISSUE
Justice Gautam Patel of Bombay High Court in the recent case of Raja Mahendragir & Anr v Shankuntaladevi Shankar Puri, came down heavily on the litigant seeking his recusal on the ground that his client will never get justice from him. The contention of litigant and his counsel were on flimsy grounds comprising of a string of judgements delivered on similar matter by him against a class of litigant to which the present litigant belonged. In his application requesting for recusal, he stated that,
“From the orders passed by the Honourable Justice G.S. Patel till this day as well as his way of working of not giving to the real heir enough opportunity to collect the necessary documents, I have become absolutely certain that I will never get justice from him. Hence, our aforesaid matter may kindly be transferred from his Court to some other Court as we have no faith in him.”
Thus, it was an identifiable trend in the Judge’s judgement (whether the trend identified by the litigant was erroneous or not the author does not wish to comment) which prompted the litigant to seek his recusal which was ultimately dismissed.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court has not just disapproved such practice but also depreciated it considering the effect it evidently has on the image of the impugned Judge and the Judiciary as a whole. In the case of M/s Chetak Construction Ltd. v. Om Prakash & Ors, the court deliberated upon the issue at length and remarked that litigants endeavour for forum shopping cannot be allowed by courts in the interest of impartial justice delivery system. The court further opined that, “A litigant cannot be permitted choice of the forum and every attempt at forum shopping should be crushed with a heavy hand”. The court in the aforementioned case categorised a set of acts which can be considered as forum shopping. Primary among them were.
Requesting the concerned Judge to recuse himself on flimsy grounds of conflict of interest.
In cases where the presiding Judge has a conflict of interest and has an inherent interest in the output of the case, he is required to recuse himself from the bench deliberating upon it. This is because; there is a possibility that the Judgement delivered by the Judge might be biased. While this rule is an unwritten one governed by good conscience and moral rectitude of the Judge, at times, this rule is used by litigants to have a judge recused from the case who has a record of delivering judgements not in favour of litigant belonging to particular class. Such instance puts the Judge in a state of topsy turvy where the Judgement he will be delivering at a future date will most probably be brought to question for its healthfulness.
By stipulating the valuation of suit in manner which put it before a judge or court of preferable jurisprudential standing.
One other way to have the case brought before a favourable court is to have the valuation according to the requirement of the preferred court. The jurisdiction of a court is determined by the plaintiff’s valuation in the plain. For instance under Andhra Pradesh Civil Courts (Amendment), Act, 2018, a case amounting to 20 Lakh Rs will be presented before Junior Civil Judge, cases amounting to between 20 Lakh to 50 Lakh Rs will be before Senior Civil Judge and cases amount to above 50 lakh will be before District Court. The litigant in such a situation will be within his right to stipulate the valuation in his Suit at such amount on reasonable grounds in order that his case may be presented before a judge or class of judge who is more likely to deliver judgement in his favour.
Appeal to superior court on not attaining a favourable Judgement
While this category cannot be considered as a mode of forum shopping per se but it has been used by litigants to have a critical judgement overturned on appeal in favour of him.
The principle laid down in the case of M/s Chetak Construction Case was further reiterated in the recent case of Neelam Manmohan Attavar v. Manmohan Attavar by a division bench of Hon’ble Supreme Court.
The law in this realm was succinctly laid down in the case of Seema Sapra v. Court on its own Motion wherein the court drew support from the Schedule Three of Indian Constitution which provides Oath of Judge for Judges of High Courts and Supreme Court requiring them to duly and faithfully perform the duties of the office they are upon to enter without fear and ill will. The Supreme Court considered the judge’s succumbing to such pressure to recuse from delivering judgement as not fulfilling the very oath they took will entering the coveted office to render service to the people.
In the very case of Seema Sapra, while it was being heard by the High Court of Delhi, a total of 28 judges had to recuse from hearing the case for one reason or another. Furthermore, even at the Supreme Court three judges had to recuse themselves from hearing it on grounds of conflict of interest. Such instance led to imposition of undue burden on the already over burdened courts which are required to hear hundreds of cases every single day.
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF FORUM SHOPPING
Their cannot be an absolute solution to this nodus of forum shopping. The solution to it lies with the decision of concerned judge on whether he will recuse himself or not. One has to keep in mind that recusal is matter own choosing for the concerned judge. It is open to him to either reject the application for his recusal or to accept it. While an impartial judge is quintessential to the justice deliverty system in our country or for that matter any other country, it is oblivious duty of the concerned judge to discharge the responsibilities he has been bestowed with.
The problem of Forum Shopping can be congruously solved by the very judge who has been requested to recuse by his deliberation upon the matter on the basis of facts presented whether his recusal is appropriate for the case or whether the application for his recusal reeks malice. Further impetus can also be provided toward curbing the practice of forum shopping by penalising such litigants and their counsel for their effort toward perversion of the course of justice. Such penalty will ensure that the litigants and their counsels are aware of possible ramification of their misadventure if it gets exposed before the court.
