Supreme Court comes down on repeated pleas to modify verdict

Sees it as a deliberate move to avoid compliance with judgment

The Supreme Court has belled the cat on the “clever move” to repeatedly file miscellaneous applications to “modify” or “clarify” its judgments.

The court said such conduct on the part of some litigants has no legal foundation. It should be firmly discouraged. Such machinations reduce litigation to a gambit.

In the past few years, private parties with “resources”, corporates and even the government have returned, time and again, to the Supreme Court after a judgment to ‘clarify’ or ‘modify’ the verdict. The move has seen brakes pulled on the implementation of the judgment and, far worse, the case being dragged on in court for years after the verdict.