NEW DELHI: To put an end to the practice of people filing frivolous PILs in courts, Chief Justice of India J S Khehar on Friday slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on RJD MLA Ravindra Singh for challenging a Patna High Court order dismissing his plea, which questioned the veracity of an article published in a vernacular magazine in 1994.
A visibly angry CJI Khehar said, “Being a representative of the people, he is found to be wasting judicial time by filing frivolous litigation. We fail to understand why he approached this court even though the high court order was explicit and clear. The instant course adopted by the petitioner is uncondonable because being a people’s representative he can’t be expected to misuse the court. The petition is dismissed with cost of Rs 10 lakh.”
The court refused to acknowledge the plea of the MLA’s advocate that the cost imposed was high and said the amount should have been higher as the people’s representative was leading to wastage of judicial time.
Singh, an MLA from Arwal in Jehanabad district of Bihar, had challenged the HC order passed on December 6, 2016.
He had questioned the veracity of the article published in 1994 and status of the magazine as on date and said he had read in 2013, the article published in 1994 which prima facie appeared to be against national harmony and national interest and wrote to the President and Bihar CM, though no action was taken.