Supreme Court Imposes ₹ 25,000 Cost For Filing 60 Pages Bulky Synopsis In Plea Against A 5-Page High Court Order

Deprecating the practice of filing bulky synopsis, the Supreme Court recently while dealing with a Special Leave Petition upon noting that the Petitioner in the case had filed a voluminous synopsis of over 60 pages against the order impugned which was only 5 pages long, imposed a penalty of Rs. 25,000 on the Petitioner.

The Bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal ordered, "There is an application filed by the petitioner for seeking permission to file a lengthy synopsis and list of dates. The impugned order runs into 5 pages. However, the synopsis is of more than 60 pages which was uncalled for in the facts of the case. Therefore, we reject the application and while we do so, we direct the petitioner to pay costs of Rs.25,000/- by way of a donation to any institution carrying out charitable work. "

Initially, the Court imposed a cost of Rs. 5,000/- on the AoR. However, following the counsel's submission that the Petition was filed based on the party's instructions, and furthermore, it would establish an undesirable precedent to levy even nominal costs on an AoR, the Bench decided to impose the costs on the petitioner instead.

Senior Advocates Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Agarwal along with Advocate-on-Record Pai Amit appeared for the Petitioner while Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal along with Advocate-on-Record Pratibha Jain appeared for the Respondents. 

The Bench was adjudicating the case of one Sandeep Kumar Garg, who was charged under Sections 406, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code and had challenged the Allahabad High Court's decision to deny him anticipatory bail. The Allahabad High Court in its 5-page order noted that the present case does not fall within the category of being of civil nature only and consequently denied grant of anticipatory bail.

It was also noted by the High Court that the Petitioner has a criminal history of five cases and he has not been enlarged in any of the cases, as such, the said criminal history goes unexplained. 

However, on medical grounds, the Apex Court granted a stay of arrest but remarked that a synopsis running  60 pages was uncalled for in the facts of the case. Accordingly, the Court directed the petitioner to pay costs of Rs.25,000/- by way of a donation to any institution carrying out charitable work and further asked the Petitioner to produce the receipt before the next date of hearing.

Cause Title: Sandeep Kumar Garg v. The State Of Uttar Pradesh & Anr [Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 12086/2023]

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