New Delhi, Oct 13 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday junked as “frivolous” a PIL seeking a direction that Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya be sworn in again as the Bombay High Court Chief Justice as the oath was not taken as prescribed under the Constitution.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the lawyer for filing the plea.
The PIL submitted that when Justice Upadhyaya was sworn in as the chief justice of the Bombay High Court on July 29, this year he did not use the expression ‘I’ before taking his name in contravention to the third schedule of the Constitution.
“There is a limit to frivolity…,” a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said while coming down hard on Lucknow-based lawyer Ashok Pandey.
“The prayers raised in the plea are seeking for administration of fresh oath to Justice D K Upadhyay as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. It further states that the Governor and chief minister of Goa, Daman and Diu were not invited for the ceremony,” the bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said.
“This is only a frivolous attempt to use the PIL jurisdiction to get some publicity…such frivolous PILs take the time of the court and deflect the court from taking up important matters,” the bench said, adding that now the time has come to impose fine for filing such cases.
The bench, which initially suggested that it will impose an anticipatory cost of Rs one lakh before hearing the PIL, later heard it briefly and imposed Rs 25,000 as fine.
“We have to sit down and read these matters and burn our midnight oil…This is quite serious,” the bench said.PTI SJK ABA SJK DV DV
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