Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has held that mere harm, annoyance, or sentimental grievance—termed damnum sine injuria (damage without legal injury)—does not confer the status of an "aggrieved person" in litigation.According to the HC, a third party, including a complainant or whistleblower, lacks the locus standi to challenge the correctness of service actions. Such an individual may, at most, lead evidence as a witness but cannot assume the status of an adversarial litigant. "To be considered aggrieved, an individual must demonstrate that they are deprived of a legal right or that their legally protected interest is adversely affected or jeopardised. A person having merely a remote or tenuous interest, one who initiates litigation driven by personal animosity, or even one who professes to act in the public interest as a self-styled vigilant, cannot claim locus standi, as they lack the ‘legal peg' upon which a justiciable claim can be hung," the court clarified. Justice Harpreet Singh Brar passed the orders while allowing three petitions filed by Satbir Singh and another petitioner against Haryana and others regarding a dispute at the Shahabad Cooperative Sugar Mill in Kurukshetra. Justice Brar held that a stranger to the litigation, possessing no proprietary or specific interest in the subject matter, is strictly prohibited from meddling in judicial proceedings. The dispute arose after the chairman of the Shahabad mill issued an order on May 21, 2025,...
Civil fraud recoveries from the healthcare sector more than tripled between 2024 and 2025, signaling that the Trump administration will continue to press hard for provider investigations and finan...