India, Sept. 6 -- The Delhi High Court has imposed Rs 1 lakh as costs on the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) for pursuing litigation against a bus conductor for 32 years over the payment of back wages for 17 months, terming it an abuse of the process of law.

Dismissing the DTC's appeal against a 2004 industrial tribunal's order in the conductor's favour, Justice Amit Mahajan said the department's "continued litigation" for such an "inordinately long period" was an avoidable expenditure of public money. In the order passed on September 2, the judge said DTC was at liberty to recover the cost from the officer responsible for pursuing such an "insignificant dispute".

The case arose from an alleged failure of the bus conductor to issue ti...