The Delhi high court on Monday dismissed a 'frivolous' public interest litigation filed by a lawyer and fined him Rs 50,000 for wasting the time of the judiciary.
A division bench of Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice A K Sikri, which imposed the cost on advocate S S Tiwari, refused to reduce the penalty saying, "If you are aggrieved, you can go to a higher forum."
Out of the total cost, Rs 10,000 will go to respondent Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd, while the rest will be deposited with the Legal Aid Cell, it said.
Tiwari had filed the PIL seeking stay on the proceedings for recovery of loans given by IREDAL to Sheetal Fuel Pvt Ltd and B S Fuel Pvt Ltd.
IREDAL, a wing of the Union Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, had given about Rs 52.57 lakh to Sheetal Fuel Pvt Ltd for running certain projects. However, the Debt Recovery Tribunal had to be approached after they defaulted and a decree was passed in favour of IREDAL on November 26, 2001, its counsel Anuradha Dutt told the court.
In December 2002 a one-time settlement was reached under which the companies agreed to refund the money, but again they defaulted, Dutt submitted.
The bench asked Tiwari, who once represented one of the companies, to explain the necessary requirements for filing a PIL and failed to get any satisfactory answer.
"It is very clear that the intention of the petitioner is to stall the proceedings and see that the recovery is not made. Therefore, the PIL is not a genuine one," the bench observed.
