Dismissing the PIL, a bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Aravind Kumar, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra said that it is a publicity interest litigation and imposed a cost of Rs one lakh on the lawyer Ashok Pandey who had filed the plea.
Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal P
The Supreme Court on Friday junked a public interest litigation (PIL) and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on Lucknow-based petitioner advocate challenging the restoration of Lok Sabha membership of the Nationalist Congress Party Leader Mohammed Faizal.
Dismissing the PIL, a bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Aravind Kumar, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra said that it is a publicity interest litigation and imposed a cost of Rs one lakh on the lawyer Ashok Pandey who had filed the plea.
“We are not going to entertain the petition just because your name can appear in the newspaper,” Justice Gavai said.
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The bench directed the lawyer to deposit Rs 50,000 each in the Supreme Court Bar Association Welfare Fund and the Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Welfare Fund respectively.
Chiding the PIL petitioner lawyer Ashok Pandey for filing PIL for publicity, the bench observed that the petition is an abuse of the process of law, as no fundamental right of the petitioner has been violated.
Initially the bench was imposing a cost of Rs five lakh on the PIL petitioner lawyer. However, it reduced the fine to Rs. one lakh after he requested the bench not to impose the cost.
The petitioner, Lucknow-based advocate Pandey said that once a Member of Parliament loses seat in the Lok Sabha because of conviction in a criminal case, he will continue to be disqualified until his acquittal by a higher court.
Last week, the top court imposed a cost of Rs five lakhs on Pandey for filing a petition contending that the oath taken by the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court was invalid as he did not use the word ‘I’ while taking the oath.
Pandey had challenged the notification of the Lok Sabha Secretariat restoring the membership of Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal after the Kerala High Court stayed his conviction and sentence in a criminal case.
Pandey has also filed another petition challenging the restoration of Lok Sabha membership of Rahul Gandhi, which is pending.
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