CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has lambasted social activist ‘Traffic’ KR Ramaswamy for filing a publicity oriented ‘vague’ petition in the name of public interest litigation, and imposed a cost of `25,000 on him.
The amount must be deposited by him within four weeks and the HC Registry should remit the same towards J&K Relief Fund forthwith, a vacation bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and R Mahadevan said on Tuesday.
The bench was dismissing in limine a writ petition from Ramaswamy and advocate N Rajaraman, praying for a direction to the State government to consider their representation dated September 29, which prayed the government to ensure security and safety to the citizens.
The bench observed that a PIL is not a pill or a panacea for all wrongs. It is where a public-spirited person files a petition on behalf of such persons who, on account of poverty, helplessness or economic and social disabilities, could not approach the court for relief.
Therefore, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and in the light of the decision of the SC, the judges said that they were of the view that the present writ petition had been filed by the petitioners, primarily for gaining media publicity, coupled with defects such as vagueness and impracticable relief, etc., which certainly cannot be entertained.
“As indicated above, the attitude of the petitioners in approaching this court with vague averments of offensive words used in the petition as well as in the representation which is highly deprecated, we are of the view that the present writ petition deserves to be dismissed with exemplary costs and we direct so,’” the judges said.