DRAVIDA THAMBI Chennai The Madras High Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on a self- proclaimed anti- corruption activist in Chennai for questioning General V K Singhs continuance as Chief of the Indian Army.
The petition
er, S Viswa Murti, founder- chairman of the little known organisation alt39 Awareness on Anti- Corruption and Crimealt39 had filed a quo- warranto writ petition questioning under what authority Singh was holding the post of Chief of Army Staff. Holding that the petition was frivolous in nature and filed with an intention to waste the courts time, a Division Bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and M Venugopal imposed a penalty of Rs one lakh on Murti.
” The petitioner has not approached this court with clean hands and with bona fide intentions, which is clear from his attitude of requesting the court to permit him to withdraw the petition,” the judges said in their order. In his petition, Murti had also prayed the court to issue a direction to the Union Defence Ministry to dismiss the General, stop his pay benefits and pension and strip him of his Army rank.
When the petition was taken up for hearing, the judges specifically asked Murtis counsel on the principles enunciated by the Supreme Court in the matter of filing quo- warranto petitions and to state the reason and necessity for issuance of quo- warranto to the respondents.
The counsel was unable to answer the judges.
Subsequently, he prayed the court to allow him to withdraw the petition saying he did not understand the nature and concept of quowarranto.
