Santosh Hegde moots for embargo on frivolous cases in courts

Retired Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde has favoured imposition of "embargo" on frivolous cases in courts, and said too many appeals provided for in the legal system is delaying justice delivery.
The country has too many appellate and revisional forums for a person to delay legal proceedings, the former Solicitor General of India said, adding that there should also be some sort of legitimate embargo on frivolous cases.
"Person who is not interested in facing the ultimate decision (court verdict), he has a chance to take up the matter in miscellaneous appeal or revision petition. Even in mainstream of appeals, there are too many appeals provided for," Hegde told PTI.

In the United States, Hegde said, there are only two forums-- trial court and appellate court.
"People are afraid to go to appellate court (in the US) because if it's found that the claims are frivolous and he is trying to delay the proceedings, huge costs are levied on the person. Therefore, they think twice before going to court, whereas in India at the drop of hat you can go to a court," the former Karnataka Lokayukta noted.
He said there are a certain section of people among tenants, borrowers and those involved in matrimonial disputes who want the legal matter to be delayed.

"In every litigation, one party gains by the delay in courts. That's the main thing. We got to find a system by which we filter what comes to original court. After that (original court) there should be only one court," Hegde said.

In America, Supreme Court does not take civil matters or any other matter except interpretation of the American Constitution, he noted.
In this background, he expressed the view, people (in India) who are concerned with (large number of backlog of cases) should very seriously think of reducing revisional courts, miscellaneous appeals courts.
"Even though Supreme Court has said no to the (this) suggestion, I think regional appellate court is much better than having Supreme Court as appellate court. One Supreme Court in Delhi as an appellate court may not serve the purpose at all. These are some suggestions which should be discussed seriously," Hegde said.