New Delhi, December 16
Noting that PILs were being increasingly misused as an instrument of blackmail to target infrastructure projects in Delhi and Mumbai, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to set aside Rs 1 lakh cost imposed on an NGO by the Bombay High Court for wasting judicial time by filing a frivolous PIL.
“PILs could become an instrument of blackmail when it is an issue of an infrastructure project. This actually makes a plank to target such projects. The (Bombay) High Court has actually smelt a rat here. This is happening across Delhi, Mumbai, etc.,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said.
“I have sat across many such cases before the Bombay court,” the CJI said, noting that competitors were behind such petitions.
When a particular property was targeted in a PIL, the high court would be often aware as to why the party moved the court; it said upholding the Bombay High Court’s order imposing a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Sarthi Seva Sangh for filing a PIL for extraneous and motivated reasons devoid of any public interest.
The petitioner—which claimed one of their objectives was promoting ecology—had approached the high court against redevelopment of a plot at Worli.
However, after examining its Memorandum of Association, the high court concluded that promoting ecology was not its objective and that one of the petitioners had no connection to the NGO. It had dismissed the PIL and imposed Rs 1 lakh as costs.
The Supreme Court concurred with the High Court, stating that the idea of the PIL was to target projects and the High Court had sensed the same.
