Mumbai: High Court Imposes Rs 5 Lakh Fine for Wasting Court Time in Kolhapur Airport Land Dispute

The High Court on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on a petitioner for wasting two and a half hours of the court's time. A bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna criticized the petitioner for abusing the court process and causing undue hardship to the respondents, particularly a widow and her family, in a land acquisition dispute related to Kolhapur Airport.

The court noted, "More than two and a half hours of the court's valuable time was wasted, and other petitioners had to wait for their cases to be heard. The workload on the court has increased, and in such a situation, the petitioner cannot ignore the fact that they wasted the court's valuable time."

The case involved land owned by Meenakshi Magdum, a widow, and her family, which was acquired for the Kolhapur Airport. A firm, G.B. Industries, had been operating on the land under a lease agreement, which expired in 2020. Despite the termination of the lease agreement, the company continued to claim compensation from the government.

The court further imposed the Rs 5 lakh fine on the company for taking an extended period to prove its legal right to the land. Additionally, the court warned that if the fine was not paid, the company’s assets would be sold to recover the amount.

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The court also commented on a growing trend of filing factless petitions, emphasizing that such actions not only waste judicial resources but also affect the rights of genuine legal claimants.