Bombay High Court Warns Of Fine As Displeasure Arises Over Misguided PIL Filing By Shiv Sena (UBT) Leader

Expressing displeasure over a petitioner filing a public interest litigation (PIL) related to a transfer of a person in the garb of public interest, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday warned of imposing fine on him.

A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor was hearing a PIL by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former corporator of Kolhapur municipal corporation Sunil Modi challenging the transfer of the city chief engineer to the hydraulic department.

Modi’s Advocate Avinash Gokhale said that the transfer per say was illegal as the transfer was done by the Urban Development Department of the State government while it is only the Municipality which can do so and the state can only sanction the transfer.

However the judges came down heavily on Gokhale saying, "Is this not a service matter? You are challenging the transfer of a person from one post to another. We will impose costs. We have been very liberal in entertaining PIL."

Gokhale tried to justify saying that the PIL had nothing to do with the transfer per say of the person but it was the city that was suffering and pointed to various newspaper articles about garbage collection not being done and similar such issues.

When the bench didn’t seem inclined to entertain the plea, Gokhale requested that he be permitted to withdraw.

Initially the bench said it will not him to withdraw the plea and added, "You are running the risk of cost. We will impose it.” However, the bench subsequently dismissed the plea while not imposing any cost.