Supreme Court Slaps Reliance with ₹10 Lakh Costs Over Obstructive Litigation
The Supreme Court of India has imposed costs of ₹10 lakh on Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) after dismissing its appeal in a 20-year-old case filed by NTPC Limited over the supply of natural gas.
A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe criticized RIL for repeatedly raising objections that prevented the commercial suit from proceeding beyond the evidence stage.
The Court stated, 'There is no dearth of financial resources, no obligation to aid and assist the court to cope with pending backlog of cases, perhaps it is lucrative for RIL to raise some objection or the other at every stage and when the trial court rejects it, the appellate and special leave jurisdictions open up.'
The Court observed that at every stage, there has been obstruction in the case. Proceedings concerning discovery and inspection took four years, disputes over the production of internal documents consumed more than a year, while litigation concerning the redaction of evidence continued for another three years.