Kerala high court dismissed a public interest writ petition stating that same cannot be entertained since it was merely based on the newspaper report.
The petition was brought before the high court by a social worker who sought the writ of mandamus against the authorities for the reconstruction of a bridge which was in a dilapidated state. The petitioner submitted that due to the poor condition of the bridge it was closed down which caused traffic jams in the area and caused much inconvenience to the public and losses to the private bus owners for whom the bridge was the main route. The petitioner only provided excerpts from newspaper reports to support his claims.
The bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chaly relied on multiple Supreme Court judgments and held that PILs filed purely on the basis of the paper report is not maintainable. the court bashed the petition and remarked “It is depressing to note that on account of such trumpery proceedings initiated before the Courts, innumerable days are wasted, which time otherwise could have been spent for the disposal of cases of the genuine litigants” the court further enumerated on the importance of PIL as a weapon of law to deliver social justice to the citizens but also warned against its misuse to fulfill malicious private interest and public fame.
The court also observed that the petition was also failed to satisfy the imperatives of rule 146A of the rules of Kerala high court which dictated “Affidavits in Public Interest Litigation,-A person filing a Public Interest Litigation, in addition to the requirements stipulated in the other rules of this chapter, shall precisely and specifically affirm in the affidavit to be sworn to by him the public cause he is seeking to espouse, that he has no personal or private interest in the matter, that there is no authoritative pronouncement by the Supreme Court or the High Court on the question raised and that the result of the litigation shall not lead to any undue gain to himself or to anyone associated with him.” The court dismissed the writ petition stating “on Public Interest Litigations, merely on news paper reports, no writ petition can be entertained and further, due to the imperatives contained under Rule 146A of the Rules of High Court of Kerala, we are also of the view that the instant writ petition filed as Public Interest Litigation, does not satisfy the requirement.”
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