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Bombay high court fines Reliance Infra Rs 1 lakh for abuse of legal pr

The Bombay high court has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Reliance Infrastructure for filing a petition that it termed an "abuse of the process of law".

The court was hearing a petition by the company challenging an order of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulation Commission (MERC) fixing station heat rate (SHR) norms for its Dahanu thermal plant. A division bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and G S Kulkarni pulled up Reliance Infrastructure for filing the petition when it had the option of challenging the MERC order before the appellate tribunal, which it had availed of.

"It is high time that such litigants...are appropriately cautioned in regard to such proceedings which they would adopt," said the bench. "This writ petition is a classic case where despite filing an appeal, the petitioners have approached this court under the garb of violation of statutory and constitutional rights. Such tendencies of abusing the process of law are, therefore, required to be taken seriously."

The HC told the company to pay Rs 1 lakh as litigation