NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking a review of an order dismissing a challenge to the appointment of Justice D Y Chandrachud as the Chief Justice of India (CJI).
A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vikas Mahajan observed that the present petition was an appeal 'disguised as a review' and no ground is made to review the earlier order dated November 11, 2022 which dismissed his initial public interest litigation.
"The review petition is dismissed. It appears that the review petition has been filed in the guise of seeking a re-hearing of the petition which is not permissible in review. Accordingly, the petition is dismissed," the bench said dismissing the plea with a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner.
The bench while upholding the earlier order said the review petitioner was not able to point out errors in the earlier order.
"Review is only when there is an error. An error has not been pointed out by you either in your (review) petition or your arguments," the court averred.
During the course of the hearing, the petitioner argued that he didn't get the last year's order copy in Hindi, saying the court was dealing with the matter with him in English and India is 'independent now'.
To this, the court asked, how many languages are there in the country and how will he talk to people who do not speak Hindi.
The petitioner Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari, who claimed to be the national president of an organisation named Gram Uday Foundation, had alleged that the appointment of the CJI was against the provisions of the Constitution.
His initial Public Interest Litigation had contended that an inquiry should be conducted by the security agencies against the new CJI to ascertain he does not have any kind of relationship with the anti-nationals and Naxalite Christian terrorists.
The High Court had said that the petition was filed to gain publicity and that it went against the genesis of a social interest litigation and was nothing but an abuse of the process of law.
In the last year's order, in which the court rejected the petitioner, saying, "The petitioner in the instant writ petition has made scandalous allegations against the former Chief Justices of India without there being any material in support of the same filed along with the writ petition. It is unfortunate that allegations have been made against other high dignitaries, including the Union Law Minister. The instant petition appears to be more of a publicity-oriented litigation instead of a public interest litigation."