Allahabad High Court Imposes ₹25K Costs On Advocate For Filing PIL With False Credentials & Pending Criminal Cases

Recently, the Allahabad High Court has imposed a cost of Rs. 25,000 on an advocate who filed a public interest litigation against alleged encroachment of road by indicating false credentials in his affidavit. While imposing the cost, the bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra observed,“we are satisfied that the instant petition is a gross misuse and abuse of process of law and deserves dismissal with cost so that it may set a deterrent example to discard unscrupulous persons from invoking Writ Jurisdiction for their vested interest under the camouflage of PIL.”Petitioner, an advocate, filed a public interest litigation alleging that the Daurala Sugar Mill, Meerut had encroached upon the public road on the sides of the Daurala lower Rajwaha (Mini Canal) passing by the Mill. It was alleged that the encroachment was causing great inconvenience to the villagers. It was pleaded that despite repeated applications to the respondent authorities, no action was taken against the Mill. Counsel for respondent-Mill highlighted that the petitioner had been working as the Chairman of the Cane Development Council and was involved in multifarious activities. Various criminal cases against the petitioner were also brought on record. It was argued that the petitioner was acting in bad faith to settle his personal score against the officials of the Mill. It was also argued by the counsel for Mill that the Mill had been functioning for 90 years and no objections had been raised till date. It was argued that after termination of the petitioner from the post of Chairman of the Cane Development Council, he is trying to harass the management of the Mill. The Court observed that the petitioner had only disclosed that he is a advocate and a passerby on the rasta where the alleged encroachment existed. It further observed that petitioner disclosed that he had worked as Chairman of the Cane Development Council only when the respondents had attacked his credentials. Since the criminal cases were also not disclosed by the petitioner, the Court observed that he was trying to “play hide and seek” with the Court. Relying on various judgments of the Supreme Court on the point that cost must be imposed to deter frivolous petitions for personal gain, the Court imposed a cost of Rs. 25,000 on the petitioner for filing false affidavit.Case Title: Ravindra Ahlawat @ Ravindra Kumar v. State of U.P. and 4 othersCounsel for Petitioner(s) : Shantanu, Raj Kumar DhamaCounsel for Respondent(s) : Diptiman Singh, Seema AgarwalClick Here To Read/Download Order

Allahabad High Court Imposes ₹25K Costs On Advocate For Filing PIL With False Credentials & Pending Criminal Cases

Upasna Agrawal

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