The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday imposed a cost of Rs 7 lakh on a person for filing a public interest litigation seven years ago and seeking adjournments ever since in a case challenging the allocation of mineral-rich land to a private company, and asked him not to make PIL a tool for raising personal issues.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee initially imposed a cost of Rs 10 lakh on one Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, but later reduced it to Rs 7 lakh by counting Rs 1 lakh for each year he kept the PIL alive while seeking adjournments after filing the petition in 2017.
Chief Justice Agarwal observed that when utilising the judicial machinery, the petitioner was not just utilising time of the court, but also energy of its staffers who would otherwise be placed for other important matters.
“When you are utilizing the machinery of the court, you are not only utilizing judicial time of the court. You are utilizing the energy of the staff of the court who are otherwise placed for other important matters and urgent matters,” the CJ said while imposing a cost of Rs 10 lakh which was later reduced to Rs 7 lakh.
The court noted that the PIL was filed in 2017 seeking to set aside an order of the state government allotting mineral-rich land to a private company in December 2015, but the petitioner failed to pursue it for all these years.
The HC noted that an industry came up on the allotted land and it was no longer possible to restore its possession to the government and the matter was just academic in nature.
“We are not considering this kind of PIL, when you are raising public interest and not considering the PIL for nine years. This is enough to dismiss the PIL. And on the last occasion also it was adjourned on your sick note. It is clear you are here for some other motive,” the court observed.
“When you are filing a PIL you have some kind of responsibility and accountability. Don’t make it a tool for your own personal issues,” the bench noted.
Jadeja had challenged the allocation of mineral-rich land to a company, Rohit Surfection Pvt Ltd, (RSPL) in Devbhoomi Dwarka district in 2015.
After the PIL was filed, the petitioner’s lawyer kept seeking adjournments on some pretext or the other.
The PIL raised the grievance that a government land was allocated without legally adhering to its policy to not allocate any mineral rich land to a private corporate entity.
