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REPORTABLE

  IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA     CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

         SLP(CIVIL) NO(s). 39434 OF 2013

HARYANA DAIRY DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVE      FEDERATION LIMITED           Petitioner(s)

                VERSUS

JAGDISH LAL                              Respondent(s)

O R D E R

Inspite of the fact that the Parliament has  

amended the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 altering the  

provisions  of  Section  102  CPC  providing  that  money  

recovery suit involving less than Rs. 25,000/- shall not  

be entertained in Second Appeal, we are being burdened  

with  cases  where  the  litigation  cost  may  be  hundred  

times more than the amount involved.  It has become the  

definite  attitude  of  the  officials  not  to  take  any  

responsibility  even  for  petty  issues  and  would  waste  

public  money  approaching  this  Court.   Government  

departments would spend any amount on litigation instead  

of  paying  petty  amount  to  the  other  party.   In  the  

instant case, an amount of Rs. 8,724/- is to be paid to  

the respondent employee as reimbursement of his medical  

claim  and  the  petitioner  Haryana  Dairy  Development  

Cooperative Federation Limited treating the litigation  

as luxury must have spent the amount already by filing  

this  petition  more  than  the  total  amount  involved  

herein.

Many a time this Court has felt unhappy about  

the time of the Court being taken for days together by  

petty matters.  (The Constitution Bench judgment Sukhdev

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Singh,  Oil  &  Natural  Gas  Commission,  Life  Insurance  

Corporation,  Industrial  Finance  Corporation  Employees  

Associations Vs.  Bhagat Ram, Association of Class II,  

Officers, Shyam Lal, Industrial Finance Corporation AIR  

1975 SC 1331).

In  Kadra  Pahadiya  and  Others Vs.  State  of  

Bihar AIR 1997 SC 3750, this Court observed that if the  

load of such petty cases is taken out of the regular  

Courts, those Courts would have time to deal with more  

serious crimes rather than have their time consumed by  

such petty cases.

The  Law  Commission  of  India  in  its  155th  

report has observed that what further agitates is the  

number  of  pending  litigations  relating  to  trivial  

matters or petty claims, some of which has been hanging  

for more than fifteen years.  It hardly needs mention  

that in many such cases money spent on litigation is far  

in  excess  of  the  stakes  involved,  besides  wasting  

valuable time and energy of the concerned parties as  

well as the Court.

We direct that the expenses of the litigation  

shall be incurred by the Managing Director personally  

who has signed affidavit in support of the petition and  

it shall not be taken from the Federation.  A copy of  

the order be sent to the learned Chief Secretary of the  

State of Haryana as well as to the Managing Director.

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The special leave petition is dismissed.  In  

view of the above, question of law, if any is kept open.

   ........................J.     (Dr. B.S. CHAUHAN)

   ........................J.     (J. CHELAMESWAR)

NEW DELHI JANUARY 13, 2014.