SC slaps Rs 25 lakh fine for filing frivolous litigation

New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on Suraz India Trust (SIT) for filing frivolous public interest cases and casting aspersions on some of the judges of the Rajasthan High Court.

The "exemplary" fine imposed on the Trust, represented by its Chairman Rajiv Daiya, has to be deposited in one month time.

A bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul also barred Suraz India from filing any PIL before any court in the country, or raising any matter of public interest before any court directly or indirectly.A

The Suraz India Trust would have to place the May 1 order before any court including top court on the next hearing in any matter that might be pending before that particular court.

Recounting the sequence of events and 64 PILs filed by the Suraz India Trust - all unsuccessful, the court said: "Extremely important matters lag behind because of misconceived intervention by the individuals lacking competence."

Noting the trust levelled allegations against the officers of the top court, the bench took exception to Daiya writing to the Chief Justice and other judges of the top court and sending them at their residential addresses by post.

The court in its order said that in the first instance it had given an option to Suraz India Trust to undertake that it would not henceforth file any PIL before any court and the matter would have rested there but Daiya chose to take the other course.

In the course of the hearing, the bench told Daiya that he was given the option of not filing a PIL again but he chose to engage the court by addressing it for one and half hour in the pre-lunch session and wasting public time.