MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court imposed Rs 10,000 cost on a litigant who filed a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to the Reserve Bank of India to waive educational loans across the country saying that the man wasted court’s time for publicity.
The litigant A M Sundaravel from Tirunelveli stated that the banks are strict in recovering agricultural loan, educational loan and small business loans from public but they are lenient with multinational companies. He sought direction to RBI to publish the names of all multinational corporate companies who have not repaid their bank loan in 2005, and also to waive educational loans worth Rs 55,000 crore.
A Division Bench of justices M Duraiwsamy and T Ravindran castigated the litigant by questioning his locus standi (right or capacity to file a case) in filing the PIL. They further criticised that the litigant has filed the case for the sake of publicity and not for the interest of the public. Though the counsel for the litigant came forward to withdraw the case, the judges permitted him to withdraw on condition that the litigant should Rs 10,000 as cost to the Chief Justice Relief Fund in a week, for wasting court’s time.