The Maharashtra Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Act, 1971

1971 : Mah. XLVIII]  1 
 
THE MAHARASHTRA VEXATIOUS LITIGATION  
(PREVENTION) ACT, 1971 
                     [Text as on 6th May 2024] 
————— 
CONTENTS 
PREAMBLE. 
SECTIONS. 
 1.  Short title, extent and commencement.  
 2.  Leave of Court necessary for vexatious litigant to institute or continue any civil or criminal                  
             proceedings.  
 3.  Proceedings instituted or continued without leave to be dismissed.  
 4.  Saving.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2 The Maharashtra Vexatious Litigation [1971 : Mah. XLVIII 
 (Prevention) Act, 1971 
1971 : Mah. XLVIII]  The Maharashtra Vexatious Litigation 3 
 (Prevention) Act, 1971 
MAHARASHTRA ACT No. XLVIII OF 19711 
[THE MAHARASHTRA VEXATIOUS LITIGATION (PREVENTION) ACT, 1971.] 
[This Act received the assent of the President on the 4th December 1971; assent was first published,  
in the Maharashtra Government Gazette, Part IV, on the 13th December 1971.]  
An Act to prevent the institution or continuance of vexatious proceedings in Courts. 
WHEREAS, it is expedient to  prevent the institution or continuance of vexatious proceedings in 
Courts; It is hereby, enacted in the Twenty second Year of the Republic of India as follows :—  
1.  Short title, extent and commencement .— (1) This Act may be called the Maharashtra 
Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Act, 1971.  
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Maharashtra.  
(3) It shall come into force on such date 2 as the State Government may, by notification in the 
Official Gazette; appoint. 
2.  Leave of Court necessary for vexatious litigant to institute or continue any  
civil or criminal proceedings. — (1) If, on an application made by the Advocate General, the High 
Court is satisfied that any person has habitually and without any reasonable ground instituted vexatious 
proceedings, civil or criminal, in any Court or Courts, whether against the same person or against 
different persons, the High Court may, after hearing that person or giving him an opportunity of being 
heard, order that no proceedings, civil or criminal, shall be instituted by him in any Court (and that any 
legal proceedings instituted by him in any Court before the order shall not be continued by him),— 
(a) in Greater Bombay, without the leave of the High Court ; and 
(b) elsewhere in the State, without the leave of the District and Sessions Judge 
At the hearing of any such application, the Advocate General may appear through a pleader. 
(2) Such leave shall not be given unless the High Court or the Judge, as the case may be, is 
satisfied that the proceedings are n ot an abuse of the process of the Court and that there is prima facie 
ground for the proceedings. 
(3) No appeal shall lie against an order refusing leave for the institution or continuance of any 
proceedings by a person who is the subject of an order for the time being in force under sub -section 
(1). Nothing in this sub-section shall apply to any appeal which may lie to or any proceeding before the 
Supreme Court. 
(4) If it appears to the High Court that the person against whom an application is made under sub-
section (1), is unable, on account of poverty, to engage a pleader, the High Court may engage a pleader 
to appear for him. 
Explanation.— For the purpose of this section, “pleader” has the same meaning as in clause ( 15) 
of section 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (V of 1908). 
(5) A copy of every order made under sub -section (1) directing any person to obtain leave before 
instituting or continuing proceedings shall be published in the Official Gazette  and may also be 
published in such other manner as the High Court thinks fit. 
3.  Proceedings instituted or continued without leave to be dismissed. — Any proceedings 
instituted or continued in any Court by a person against whom an order under sub-section (1) of the last 
preceding section has been made, without obtaining the leave referred to in that section, shall be 
dismissed by the Court : 
                                                   
1  For Statement of Objects and Reasons  of the L. C. Bill No. VI of 1971 , see Maharashtra Government Gazette  1971, 
Extraordinary No. 57, Part V, dated 9th September 1971, p. 290. 
2  1st day of March 1972 (Vide) G.N.,L. & J.D., No. CRP. 1468/4990-H-2, dated 5th February 1972).  
4 The Maharashtra Vexatious Litigation [1971 : Mah. XLVIII 
 (Prevention) Act, 1971 
Provided that, this section shall not apply to any proceedings instituted for the purpose of 
obtaining such leave. 
4.  Savings.— The provisions of this Act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of the 
provisions of any other law for the time being in force for prevention of vexatious proceedings or other 
abuse of legal process, or which require consent, sanction or approval in any form of any other 
authority for the institution or continuance of any proceedings. 
 
 

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