NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said it is about time that frivolous and vexatious proceedings are met with due sanctions in the form of exemplary costs to dissuade parties from resorting to tactics, which add up to the pendency and delay in disposal of cases crying for justice.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Vishwanathan said, "Of late we notice pleadings or petitions with outrageous and ex facie unbelievable averments are made with no inhibition whatsoever. This is especially so in some family law proceedings, both civil and criminal. Reading some of the averments, we are left to wonder whether at all the deponents were conscious of what has been written purportedly on their behalf, before appending their signatures."