KURNOOL: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on five petitioners, who filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and backed out by seeking withdrawal of the petition. They have been given two weeks’ time to pay the fine, otherwise the same should be recovered as land revenue, the court order said.
According to mining officials, the five petitioners are farmers from Kurnool district, who took the route of PIL to wreak vengeance on a woman farmer, Prameela, who was granted mining lease, near Owk village. The PIL was filed in 2011. A bench comprising Chief Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari and Justice G Syam Prasad, while hearing the petition imposed exemplary fine for approaching the court with a questionable motive.
The case pertains to granting of mining lease to Prameela of Sangapatnam village. She was granted lease from the revenue and mining departments. But the five farmers approached the court by filing a PIL that the mining lease to Prameela was obtained fraudulently and sought the court direction by way of mandamus to cancel it. They averred that the mining lease lands included rivulets, canals and government lands and therefore the lease must be cancelled. With this mining operations of Prameela were stopped. Tahslidar of Owk revoked the mining lease granted to Prameela.