New Delhi, Oct 28: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking Rs 50 crore interim compensation from the CJP for causing harassment and inconvenience to the general public due to demonstrations.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma observed that similar issues are pending before the Supreme Court, which is seized of several petitions relating to protests and the petitioner here can approach the apex court with his prayers.
“The judicial discipline warrants that, in such an eventuality, this court must stay its hands away from the proceedings and should not pass conflicting orders,” the bench said.
As the petitioner insisted that his prayers were different from those pending before the apex court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said several pleas had been filed in the top court by small traders who claimed that their livelihoods had come to a standstill due to the protests.
Mehta said the plea raised a valid public law issue and petitioner R K Saini, an advocate, could join the proceedings before the apex court with his prayers.
Initially, the bench was of the view that it would defer the proceedings in the petition to await the orders of the Supreme Court in the pleas pending there. However, later it disposed of the petition and clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the plea.
“What is the scope of those proceedings? More than 50 petitions are pending before the Supreme Court,” the bench told the petitioner.
As the petitioner said imposing a community fine will act as a deterrent to such organisations, “otherwise nothing is stopping them and the state was helpless”, the court responded, “No, no, the State has handled it.”
The petitioner sought direction to the government to initiate proceedings against the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and collect a community fine to compensate the general public for the harassment and inconvenience caused to them in their normal life due to the recent protests and demonstrations in the national capital.
As an interim relief, the plea sought to direct the CJP to deposit Rs 50 crore as an interim amount with the high court to secure and protect the rights of the common man or affected residents of Delhi for the gross harassment, physical and mental torture/ inconvenience/ misery and suffering caused to them.
