Date:08/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080855730600.htm

Tamil Nadu

Bench imposes fine on former councillor of Sivaganga district

Staff Reporter

“Let it be an eye-opener for litigation mongers”

“He was aggrieved at road-laying work costing Rs.10 lakh”
“He may have been used as a tool by a contractor”

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here has imposed exemplary cost (fine) of Rs.50,000 on a former councillor of Karaikulam panchayat in Sivaganga district for filing a “vexatious” public interest litigation (PIL) petition.

A Division Bench of Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M. Venugopal ordered K. Subramanian to deposit the amount with the Legal Aid Services Committee attached to the High Court Bench within four weeks.

“On a thorough perusal of the materials placed on record, and after elaborately hearing both sides, we are able to find that the petitioner has acted as a tool of some interested party and filed this self-interested litigation under the garb of PIL, that too hiding the true facts, to his convenience,” observed the judges.

“Therefore, it is a fit case to be dismissed with costs to serve as an eye-opener for such litigation mongers, who misuse the PIL jurisdiction for self-interests and publicity interests by hiding the facts, which are well within their knowledge, and with a dishonest intention of deceiving and playing fraud on the justice delivery system,” they said.The Judges said the petitioner was aggrieved only at the road-laying work costing Rs.10 lakh.

He should not have sought to quash the sanction granted by the Sivaganga Collector for carrying development works to the tune of Rs.76.46 lakh under the constituency development fund of the Ilayangudi MLA.

In his counter affidavit, the Collector said the petitioner might have been used as a tool by a road contractor whose job work was cancelled for non-compliance of certain norms.

He also said that the petitioner had concealed a letter written by the MLA stating that the road need not be laid from his constituency development funds as it was already undertaken under another scheme.