The Bombay high court has ordered costs of Rs 40 lakh against 10 petitioners who filed a property matter that Justice Gautam Patel called a “sponsored” petition “without the faintest glimmer of merit. It is precisely the kind of litigation — speculative, lacking in bonafides, sponsored, an abuse of process of law and of the court and perhaps even a fraud on the court — that our Supreme Court has repeatedly decried and deprecated, even said should be visited with exemplary and penal costs”.

The costs were to be paid to the respondent developer, who claimed that they had to spend significant costs defending themselves against the action, reported the PTI, though the court nevertheless intermittently stayed the development of land the petitioners had challenged so they could launch an appeal.