High Court
The Supreme Court fined a man Rs 5 lakh for alleging in a PIL that the oath taken by the chief justice of the Bombay High Court was “defective” and deemed it to be a baseless publicity stunt.
Such objections cannot be raised, according to a bench presided over by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. The oath was administered by the governor and signed after it was administered.
The Supreme Court ruled that this was only an absurd attempt to utilize the PIL process to gain publicity for the petitioner.
“The petitioner does not, and he cannot, contest that the right person was given the oath of office. Such objections cannot be made because the governor delivered the oath and it was signed after it was administered.
The bench, which also included Justices Manoj Misra and JB Padriwala, stated, “We are clearly of the view that such frivolous PILs occupy the time and attention of the Court, deflecting the attention of the Court from more serious matters and consuming the infrastructure of the judicial manpower and Registry of the Court.”
“We accordingly dismiss the petition with costs of ₹ 5,00,000, which shall be deposited by the petitioner in the Registry of this Court within a period of four weeks,” the judge stated.
According to the top court, if the amount is not paid within the specified time, it will be collected as unpaid land revenue by the Collector and District Magistrate in Lucknow.
Ashok Pandey filed a PIL with the Supreme Court, claiming that the Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature in Bombay gave him a “defective oath” that caused him to feel wronged.
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