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TMI Blog2006 (8) TMI 530X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d through Guru Nanak Road Carrier from Ghaziabad to Mandi Gobindgarh. While entering the State of Punjab, the driver of the vehicle produced the invoice and goods receipt at Information Collection Centre, Khanauri (for short, "ICC"). In spite of the bill and the G. R. being in order, the goods were illegally detained at ICC. The plea of the petitioner further is that in terms of the provisions of the Act, the petitioner offered surety bonds/bank guarantee for release of the goods, but the request of the petitioner was declined by the detaining officer for the reasons best known to him. Under the circumstances, the petitioner had no alternative but to approach this court. In the written statement filed, the respondents have taken preliminary objection regarding mis-statement and concealment of facts by the petitioner in the writ petition with a view to mislead this court. The relevant facts as stated in the written statement are extracted below: "Vehicle No. H-58A-9741 loaded with M. S. ingots arrived at the I. C. C. on July 29, 2006. The driver of the vehicle handed over photostat copy of bill No. TE/015/A/06-07 dated July 19, 2006 issued by M/s. Trishul Enterprises, Rurkela (Or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stablish their ownership of goods. They were asked to produce their regular account books in order to find out the genuineness of their claim as owner of the goods. Another question put for reply was as to why the bill issued by Ghaziabad dealer had been produced on the third day, but no plausible reply was given. The detaining officer suspected that M/s. Shiv Shankar Steel Industries, Mandi Gobindgarh who has now produced the bill issued by dealer of Ghaziabad has made an effort to import the goods in question in the name of M/s. Jindal Traders, Ludhiana either with his connivance or otherwise. The driver Sh. Karamjit Singh who has appeared along with Sunil Kumar made a statement before the detaining officer that the goods have been brought from Rurkela and the original documents were taken by him which were handed over to Mr. Sunil Kumar at Mandi Gobindgarh and the documents now produced have been handed over to him by Sh. Sunil Kumar, proprietor of petitioner-firm. Thereafter, the detaining officer submitted the case to the answering respondent for taking action under section 51(7)(c) of the Punjab Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 2005"). A notice was ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on as the petitioner was indulging in evasion of tax. The allegations made in the written statement filed by the respondents have not been controverted by the petitioner by filing any replication. The jurisdiction of the High Courts to issue directions, orders or writs including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by Part III of the Constitution and for any other purpose is essentially an equitable jurisdiction and those petitioners, who do not come to the court with clean hands are not entitled to be heard on the merits of their grievances. In Hari Narain v. Badri Das AIR 1963 SC 1558, the honourable Supreme Court upheld the objections raised on behalf of the respondents that the appellant was guilty of mis-statement of facts and revoked the leave by making the following observations: "It is of utmost importance that in making material statements and setting forth grounds in applications for special leave made under article 136 of the Constitution, care must be taken not to make any statements which are inaccurate, untrue or misleading. In dealing with applications for speci ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... btained by playing fraud on the court inasmuch as a vital document was withheld in order to gain advantage on the other side, such party deserves to be thrown out at any stage of the litigation. In Nand Lal v. State of Jammu and Kashmir AIR 1960 J&K 19, a learned Judge of Jammu and Kashmir High Court held that if a party does not disclose all the facts correctly and candidly, it is not entitled to be heard on the merits of the case. The observations made therein are reproduced hereunder: "Where the petitioners under article 226 have not stated the relevant facts correctly and candidly either in their petition or in the affidavit in support of their petition, this is by itself sufficient to entail an outright dismissal of the writ petition without going into its merits. And even if the petitioners have a good case on merits, the court will be entitled to decline to go into the merits and dismiss their petition, because the conduct of the petitioners has been such as to mislead the court." This court had also, on a number of occasions, consistently taken serious view of the contumacious conduct of the parties and accordingly declined relief in a large number of cases. In Smt. Bhu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on the growing tendency among the litigants to pollute the course of justice and observed as under: "Satya (truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence) are the two basic values of life, which have been cherished for centuries in this land of Mahavir and Mahatma Gandhi. People from different parts of the world come here to learn these fundamental principles of life. However, post-independence era and particularly the last two decades have witnessed sharp decline in these two basic values of life. Materialism has over-shadowed the old ethos and quest for personal gain is so immense that people do not have any regard for the 'truth'. Proceedings in the courts, which were at one time considered to be pious and the people considered it their duty to tell the truth in the court, now stand vitiated by the attempts made by the parties to pollute the ends of justice." Reference may also be made to some of the English decisions on the subject. In Rex v. Kensington [1917] 1 KB 486, Cozens Hardy M. R. made the following observations on the conduct of a party in an ex parte application in the following words: "On an ex parte application uberrima fides is required, and unless that can be established, i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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