By Adarsh Patel
The Allahabad High Court recently imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on a petitioner for filing four writ petitions on the same issue over a period of two years, seeking the same relief.
A single bench of Justice Rajiv Joshi passed this order while hearing a petition by one Noor Hasan. The petitioner had earlier filed the petition challenging an order of February 20, 2019, which was dismissed on April 4, 2019.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that his reply was not considered by the district magistrate and he was facing personal difficulties. Besides, he said, the order suffered from non-application of mind. The petitioner then approached the Court again, and this was again dismissed as a withdrawn order on December 12, 2019. There-after, Hasan again moved the Court for the same relief. It was again dismissed on February 14, 2020, as withdrawn without any liberty to file a fresh petition. Subsequently, a writ petition was filed, challenging the impugned order of February 20, 2019.
By the impugned order, the financial and administrative powers of the petitioners cease in exercise of powers under Section 95(1)(g) of the UP Panchayat Raj Act, 1947. The Court noted that the petition was the fourth attempt of the petitioner to present the same cause of action, despite dismissal of his pleas for lack of merit. It was stated by the petitioner in an affidavit on January 7, 2021, that he was not well-qualified and had passed only Class V, and therefore, due to lack of legal knowledge, he had once again filed the petition on the same issue. Under these circumstances, the petition was dismissed and the petitioner asked to deposit Rs 3 lakh.
A similar case came up in the Supreme Court last year when it imposed Rs 25,000 on Raj Kumar Modi, an accused in the Adarsh scam case, for repetitive filing of interim bail applications. “Repetitive filing of applications amounts to abuse of process of law,” the Court said. Modi was granted bail by the Court on June 15, 2020 for two months as his mother was seriously ill. Thereafter, he filed another application for bail extension for the next six months as his mother had passed away and he had to perform some rituals. Then he submitted another bail extension application claiming his wife was suffering from serious ailments. This was disposed of and it was clearly mentioned that no such bail extension would be entertained in future. But he again filed another application for interim bail extension saying he had a serious medical issue.
Observing such repetitive filing, a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat dismissed the application, noting that repetitive filing for bail extension is an abuse and mockery of law and would not be entertained on any grounds. Therefore, the accused was fined Rs 25,000 and the Court ordered that he be given adequate medical attention.
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