JUDGMENT

Thomas, J.-Leave granted.

2. If what the appellant-Insurance Company now says is true, then a rank fraud had been played by two claimants and wangled two separate Awards from a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal for a bulk sum. But neither the Tribunal nor the High Court of Allahabad, before which the Insurance Company approached for annulling the awards, opened the door but expressed helplessness even to look into the matter and hence the Insurance Company has filed these appeals by Special leave.

3. "Fraud and justice never dwell together". (Frans at jus nunquam cohabitant) is a pristine maxim which has never lost its temper over all these centuries. Lord Denning observed in a language without equivocation that "no judgment of a Court, no order of a Minister can be allowed to stand if it has been obtained by fraud, for, fraud unravels everything" (Lazarus Estate Ltd. v. Beasley1).

4. For a High Court in India to say that it has no power even to consider the contention that the awards secured are the by products of stark fraud played on a Tribunal, the plenary power conferred on the High Court by the Constitution may become a mirage and people s faith in the efficacy of the High