The Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in the case of Narinder Khanna vs Govt of Delhi & Ors. consisting of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed a PIL filed by an advocate by stating that the same was nothing but a sheer abuse of the process of law. It also awarded costs of Rs.1,00,000/- to the Army War Widows Fund to be paid within a period of 30 days from the day of judgment.
Facts
The petitioner filed this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regarding the news/ statement on “India TV” Channel made by the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi that the Central Investigating Agencies were harassing the private liquor vendors and they have been forced to close their shops. He further stated that the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi confirmed that on closure of private liquor shops, heavy loss was caused to the State Exchequer resulting in loss of livelihood to 176 private liquor vendors and the public was deprived of the opportunity to purchase liquor at discounted price.
He prayed that a direction be issued to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi to identify those persons who are causing harassment to those liquor vendors forcing them to close their shops, thereby depriving them of their right of livelihood guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Observations of the Court
The Bench relied on Janata Dal vs. H.S. Chowdhary, Dattarajnathujithaware vs. State of Maharashtra and Tehseen Poonawalla vs. Union of India while considering the misuse of Public Interest Litigation and opined that:
“The petitioner has not named a single officer of the CBI, or of the Directorate of Enforcement who has harassed a single liquor vendor, nor has he given details of any kind of such harassment and based upon the so-called press releases/ statement made in the press, he wants a roving inquiry to be done by this Court. The present petition is nothing but a sheer abuse of the process of law and the petitioner wants a roving inquiry to be done by this Court based upon vague and absurd allegations.”
Judgment
The Bench noted that this petition was nothing but a sheer abuse of the process of law and therefore, dismissed it at admission stage itself with costs of Rs.1,00,000/- to be paid to the Army War Widows Fund within a period of 30 days from the day of judgment.
Case: Narinder Khanna vs Govt of Delhi & Ors.
Citation: W.P.(C) 12762/2022
Bench: Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, Justice Subramonium Prasad
Decided on: 8th September 2022
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