Madhya Pradesh HC Imposes Cost Of Rs. 10,000 On Congress Leader Raghunandan Singh Seeking Enquiry Into Patwari Recruitment Exam Scam
|The Madhya Pradesh High Court, Indore Bench has imposed a cost of Rs. 10,000/- on the Congress party leader Raghunandan Singh Parmar who sought enquiry into the scam relating to Patwari Recruitment Exam.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice Hirdesh held, “It appears that petitioner has filed the present writ petition even without filing a representation before the State Government and directly approached this Court, which is in violation of Madhya Pradesh High Court Rules, as stated in the preceding paragraphs. This Court is of the considered opinion that some cost deserves to be imposed on the petitioner for wasting the precious time of this Court.”
The Bench said that the petitioner wasted the precious time of the court by filing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) with regard to this matter.
Advocate Rohit Sharma appeared on behalf of the petitioner while Additional Advocate General Anand Soni appeared on behalf of the respondents.
In this case, a PIL was filed under Article 226 of the Constitution by the petitioner who did not challenge any particular order but sought a direction to the respondents to constitute a fact-finding enquiry by a Committee headed by the Retires/Sitting Judge of the High Court or any other High-Level Committee to enquire into the scam in the recruitment of Patwari Examination conducted by the M.P. Employees Selection Board, Bhopal in the month of March-April, 2023 and the result of which was declared on July 11, 2023.
The petitioner claimed to be an honest and vigilant social worker and being a social worker, he had no personal interest in the PIL filed before the court. It was submitted by him that the only purpose was to protect the larger public interest and sanctity of the recruitment examination of Patwari. The petitioner further alleged that in such a Patwari recruitment process, there was a big recruitment scam of high level, due to which the meritorious students were deprived of being given appointments as Patwaris.
The High Court after hearing the arguments from both sides observed, “The question which arises for consideration in this Public Interest Litigation would be whether the same is maintainable in the light of non-compliance of Rules 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 of Chapter XIII-A of the M.P. High Court Rules 2008. In view of the non-compliance of the Rules of 2008 as well as the pendency of the inquiry report before the Lokayukt M.P., and the guidelines laid down in the case of Balwant Singh Chaufal (supra), this Court is not inclined to entertain this writ petition.”
The Court noted that the PIL is based on newspaper reporting without conducting any research and without even disclosing the source of information.
“Accordingly, petitioner is directed to deposit a sum of Rs.10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand Only) imposed on the petitioner for wasting the precious time of this Court”, directed the Court.
The Court said that the petitioner shall deposit the cost before the High Court Legal Services Committee, Indore within a period of 30 days.
Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the petition.
Cause Title- Raghunandan Singh Parmar v. The State of Madhya Pradesh & Anr.