NAGPUR: With a view to stop frivolous petitions that were used by the alleged blackmailers for their vested interests, Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Wednesday asked an RTI activist to deposit Rs 1 lakh to prove his bona fide before hearing his Public Interest Litigation (PIL) about alleged financial irregularities in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
The court's directives came just a couple of days after Supreme Court's refusal to interfere with an Allahabad High Court order asking a persistent PIL litigant to deposit Rs 25,000 with every case she filed. In 2005, even the Law Commission recommended to the Centre to prevent frivolous litigation by enacting a law on the lines of Madras Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Act of 1949.
A division bench of justices Vasanti Naik and Pukhraj Bora asked Mukesh Sahu's counsel Srikant Khandalkar to complete formalities before adjourning the hearing by two weeks. The judges made it clear that notice would be issued to respondents only after the petitioner deposited the amount with the court registry. Recently, while hearing a PIL against shops and establishments at Telangkhedi promenade, the court had asked the shopkeepers, who had filed petitions against NIT for same cause, to deposit Rs 23 lakh with its registry.
Citing an audit report, Sahu had demanded a probe into alleged misuse of public money by the NMC. He pointed out a string of irregularities by the civic officials while awarding tenders or contracts between 2002 and 2011. Union secretary for rural development, state secretary for General Administration Department (GAD), NMC commissioner, and superintendent of anti-corruption department among others were made respondents.
The Allahabad High Court had asked petitioner Nutan Thakur, known for filing PILs on various issues who had clocked a score of 86 petitions so far, to deposit money with every new PIL she would be filing. The court made it clear that the deposited amount would be refuned only if it found the PIL to be advocating a genuine public cause.
Asserting that no one can rush to the court with a PIL for every headline in newspapers, the three-judge supreme court bench of chief justice RM Lodha and justices Kurian Joseph and RF Nariman, stated that there was a need for a law in every state to curtail vexatious and frivolous litigations. "In Maharashtra, there is a Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Act of 1971 that needs to be enacted by every state," it said.
Hailing the court's decision, Jan Manch president and noted lawyer Anil Kilor, who had filed many PILs on behalf of his organization, said the move would act as a deterrent for the petitioners who misused this tool to settle personal scores or to blackmail. "The apex court had directed all high courts to ask petitioners to deposit the money if it found something fishy in the case. If it is proved that the case was filed for settling scores or for vested interests, that deposit could be forfeited. It is only way to keep a check on frivolous PILs," he said.
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