The Delhi High Court has recently dismissed a PIL with a cost of Rs 10 lakh while observing “It is very unfortunate that the noble forum of PIL is now being used for blackmailing the citizens. This is not a PIL at all. It is, in fact, a litigation based upon certain photographs resulting in blackmailing type of litigation.”
The PIL had been filed by New Rise Foundation Regd. Charitable Trust against alleged illegal and unauthorized construction. Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad ordered the costs of Rs 10 lakh be paid to Army War Widows Fund.
Advocate Ajay Digpaul representing the MCD had submitted that the NGO had been involved in blackmailing builders and had not approached the court for the noble cause for which it was promulgated. He further submitted that the same writ petitioner represented by the same counsel has earlier also filed a Writ Petition i.e. W.P.(C) No. 9150/2022 and when the matter was taken up on 02.06.2022, the Division Bench was inclined to impose cost as it was a frivolous Writ Petition.
“The Petitioner otherwise also wants a roving enquiry to be done based upon some photographs and there is no other evidence brought on record to arrive at a conclusion that the structure in question is an unauthorised construction,” reads the judgment.
The advocate for the petitioner admitted to the fact that the property involved in the present Writ Petition was certainly the property involved in the earlier Public Interest Writ Petition i.e. W.P.(C) No. 9150/2022. The Court reprimanded the advocate for suppression of facts and stated, “a person who does not comes with clean hands and suppresses material facts is not entitled for any relief whatsoever.”