Dismissed¶¶23

M/S. Agrawal Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd., Chattisgarh v. State of Odisha

High Court of Orissa at Cuttack – W.P.(C) No.2012 of 2026

Orissa HC10 Mar 2026WP(C)/2012/2026

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Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Forum shopping; forum jumping; parallel proceedings before National Green Tribunal (NGT), Eastern Zone Bench; show cause notice issued during NGT pendency; comity and amity of judicial discipline; inconsistent decisions; writ petition dismissed; liberty to approach NGT; High Court of Orissa at Cuttack; Agrawal Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd.; State of Odisha; W.P.(C) No.2012 of 2026; order dated 10.03.2026.

What did the court decide?

There is no impediment on the part of the Tribunal (NGT) to deal with the issues raised in the instant writ petition; once the same are agitated and appropriate reliefs are sought, there is no embargo in the Tribunal to deal with them. ¶¶20-21

M/S. Agrawal Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd., Chattisgarh Vs State of Odisha — Orissa HC (2026) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Dismissed

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Issue for consideration

Whether the writ petition should be entertained when the NGT, Eastern Zone Bench is already seized of the same issues — i.e., whether the petitioner's filing constitutes impermissible forum-jumping/forum shopping. +1 more

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Court's answer

Courts should not permit a litigant to jump the forum or engage in forum shopping that invites inconsistent decisions to operate simultaneously in the judicial parlance.

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Ratio / Principle

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Key takeaways

Amity and comity of judicial discipline demand that once a forum is already in seisin of a matter, anything consequential to or arising from it be dealt with within that forum, so as to bring certainty and uniformity in decisions; courts have time and again deprecated litigants jumping the forum.ratio¶¶21
The instant writ petition lacks merit and is dismissed; it remains open to the petitioner to approach the NGT, if so advised, and the Court trusts the NGT will take the issues into consideration and pass a conscious decision as permissible in law.ratio¶¶23

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

High Court of Orissa at Cuttack — W.P.(C) No.2012 of 2026 — Order dated 10.03.2026 (Coram: Harish Tandon, Chief Justice and Murahari Sri Raman, Judge). A writ petition by M/s. Agrawal Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. was dismissed on the ground of forum-jumping: the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Eastern Zone Bench was already in seisin of the underlying issues arising from complaints lodged from several quarters, and a show cause notice issued by the authority amidst that proceeding had been brought to the NGT's notice with a request for time to exhaust remedies. Held: (i) there is no impediment or embargo on the Tribunal dealing with the issues raised in the writ petition once agitated with appropriate reliefs sought; (ii) courts should not permit litigants to jump the forum or indulge in forum shopping inviting inconsistent decisions to operate simultaneously; (iii) amity and comity of judicial discipline require that anything consequential to a matter already in a forum's seisin be dealt with therein, for certainty and uniformity of decision. The writ petition was found devoid of merit and dismissed, with liberty to the petitioner to approach the NGT, if so advised.

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK

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W.P.(C) No.2012 of 2026

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M/s. Agrawal Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. …. Petitioner

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Represented by Adv.– Mr. Soumik Spandan Tripathy, Advocate -Versus-

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State of Odisha and others …. Opposite Parties

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Represented by Adv.– Mr. Saswat Das, A.G.A. for the State Mr. Sankar Prasad Pani, Advocate for the Caveator

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CORAM:

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HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND

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HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE MURAHARI SRI RAMAN

ORDER

Order No.

10.03.2026

1. It is one of the classical examples where the litigant has taken a

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circuitous route in filing the litigation by jumping the forum. On the

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basis of the complaint being lodged from several quarters, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Eastern Zone Bench has taken up

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the issues and is in seisin of the same.

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Amidst the pendency of the proceeding before the NGT, a

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show cause notice is issued by the authority upon the writ petitioner and the factum thereof is brought to the notice of the NGT. Interestingly, while bringing to the notice of the NGT that the show cause notice has been issued in the midst of the matter, the submission was made that they may be provided some time to exhaust the appropriate remedies.

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We do not find any impediment on the part of the Tribunal to

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deal with the issues so raised in the instant writ petition and the moment the same is agitated and appropriate reliefs are sought for, there is no embargo in the Tribunal to deal with the same. The Court should not permit the litigant to jump the forum or do a forum shopping and invite the inconsistent decisions to operate simultaneously in the judicial parlance. The amity and the comity of the judicial discipline demands that once the forum has already in seisin of the matter, anything consequential and/or arising there from has to be dealt with in order to bring the certainty and the uniformity in the decision and time and again the Courts have deprecated the approach of the litigant in jumping the forum.

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We, thus, do not find any merit in the instant writ petition and the same is dismissed. However, it is open to the petitioner to approach the NGT, if so advised and in the event such approach is made, we trust and hope that the NGT will take the issues into consideration and will pass a conscious decision as permissible in law.

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(Harish Tandon) Chief Justice

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(M.S. Raman) Judge

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S.K. Guin/PA

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Signature Not Verified

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Digitally Signed Signed by: SUBASH KUMAR GUIN Reason: Authentication Location: High Court of Orissa, C utta ck Date: 12-Mar-2026 12:34:47

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