 bill  no  xxv of  2008 the prevention of vexatious and frivolous litigations bill, 2008 a billto prevent vexatious and frivolous proceedings, civil or criminal, in the high courts and courts subordinate thereto by individual and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—1  (1) this act may be called the prevention of vexatious and frivolous litigations act, 2008short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force on such date, as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, specify2  no person shall file without any reasonable grand any vexatious proceedings habitually and/or institute frivolous proceedings, criminal or civil, against any individualvexatious and frivolous litigation not to be filed3 (1) any person against whom another person has instituted or conducted proceedings, civil or criminal, may file an application in the appropriate high court for declaring the other person as a vexatious litigant in such manner as may be prescribeddeclaration of a person as a vexatious litigant(2) if, on an application filed under sub-section (1), the high court is satisfied that any person has habitually and without any reasonable ground instituted vexatious proceedings or has filed frivolous proceedings, civil or criminal, in any court whether against the same person or against different persons, the high court may, after giving the person who has instituted such proceedings, an opportunity of being heard, declare that person as a vexatious litigant by an order to that effect(3) the high court while disposing of the application under sub-section (1) shall adopt such procedure as may be prescribed4 (1) the vexatious litigant as so declared by high court under sub-section (2) of section 3 shall not institute any proceeding or continue with any proceeding, civil or criminal, in the high court or any other subordinate court without obtaining necessary permission of the high court or the subordinate court as the case may beleave ofcourt necessary for vexatious litigant to institute or continue any civil or criminal proceedings(2) the appropriate court or the appropriate judge, as the case may be, shall grant permission after being satisfied that the proceedings are not an abuse of the process of the court and that there is prima facie ground in the proceedings proposed to be instituted or continued by the person declared as a vexatious litigant5 (1) an order made under sub-section (2) of section 3, declaring any person as a vexatious litigant, shall be published in the official gazette and may also be published in such other manner as the high court may directpublication and communication of order(2) every order referred in sub-section (1) shall also be communicated to all the courts subordinate to the high court which passed such order6 (1) any proceedings, civil or criminal, instituted or continued in any court by a person who has been declared as vexatious litigant under section 3 without obtaining the leave required to be obtained from the appropriate court or appropriate judge, shall be dismissed by the said court(2) the court while dismissing the proceedings under sub-section (1) shall, in addition, further direct such vexatious litigant to pay costs of the litigationproceedings, civil or criminal, instituted or continued without leave of the appropriate court to be dismissed(3) every person referred to in sub-section (1) who has instituted or continued anyproceeding without leave as aforesaid, may also be liable for punishment for contempt of the high court which had passed the order under sub-section (2) of section 3savings7  the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of theprovisions of any other law for the time being in force providing for prevention of vexatious and frivolous proceedings or prevention of abuse of the process of lawpower to make rules8 the high court may by notification make rules for carrying out the purposes of thisact statement of objects and reasonsfrivolous and vexatious litigations are the cause of concern for the courts for quite sometime often the subject was highlighted by various courts and the law commission, which favoured for a check on the filing of frivolous and vexatious proceedings at times, it has been seen that many persons abuse the process of law and indulge in the habitual and intentional filing of frivolous and vexatious civil or criminal proceedings to harass other persons without any reasonable ground it has also been observed by the courts that some persons habitually and persistently file cases on the issues, which has already been decided once or more than once against some parties or their successors or against different parties besides the harassment, filing of such proceedings also leads to wastage of the precious time of the courts there is no denying of the fact that every person has right to file civil or criminal proceeding against any other person, but a check is necessary to allow the court to examine the bona fide of a person filing the proceeding many countries in the world, like usa, uk have enacted a law on the filing of frivolous and vexatious litigation in our country also, there is a law on the subject in two states ie tamil nadu and maharashtra in view of the concern expressed by the courts, it is necessary that a central law must be enacted to prevent the filing of frivolous and vexatious complaints by declaring such a person as vexatious litigant, who may thereafter be barred from filing or continuing any such complaint without the permission of the high court or the appropriate court it is also felt that if a person is declared as vexatious litigant, provision should also be made to punish him for the contempt of the court besides directing him to pay the costthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectivesmahendra mohan memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 8 of the bill empowers the concerned high court to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of details only as such the delegation of legislative powers is of normal character———— a billto prevent vexatious and frivolous proceedings, civil or criminal, in the high courts andcourts subordinate thereto by individual and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto————(shri mahendra mohan, mp)gmgipmrnd—4749rs(s5)—29-12-2008