Delhi HC Directs CBI Enquiry Against Litigant Who Filed More Than 40 Writ Petitions Against MCD Alleging Unauthorised Constructions
The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’) to conduct a preliminary enquiry against a litigant namely Rahul Kumar, who has filed more than forty writ petitions against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (‘MCD’) alleging unauthorized construction.
The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed, “In these circumstances, the apprehensions raised by the learned counsel for the respondent/ MCD cannot be overlooked. To rule out any apprehension, this Court deems it appropriate to direct a proper inquiry to be conducted in the matter. Accordingly, CBI is directed to conduct a preliminary enquiry to ascertain whether any cognizable offence has been committed and if so, by whom. The CBI is directed to submit the report of preliminary enquiry on or before the next date of hearing…The petitioner is also directed to cooperate with the CBI in the matter.”
Advocates Vivek Kumar Shrivastav appeared for the Petitioner while SC Sanjeev Sabharwal appeared for the Respondent.
The Counsel for the MCD submitted that the Petitioner had perfected the ‘art of exploiting’ MCD by filing Public Interest Litigations qua unauthorized constructions. The Counsel submitted the list of the ten cases, which were filed by the Petitioner but not listed by the Registry. He also furnished a chart of forty-two matters which have been filed by the petitioner since March 2021.
The Court said that the petitioner had been filing writ petitions pertaining to individual properties in the same locality instead of bunching them and claiming that he had no personal interest in the litigation and that the petition was not guided by self-gain or for gain of any other person/ institution/ body and there is no other motive than the public interest.
It was also revealed that in the matters which were listed before the Court, the petitioner or his counsel did not appear on several dates in most of the matters and some of these matters were disposed of either on the report submitted by MCD or directions were issued to approach the Special Task Force (STF). One matter was dismissed in default and for non-prosecution.
“Despite that, in most of the matters, the petitioner or his counsel failed to appear during the hearings or the petitioner failed to get most of the matters listed after serving the advance notice of the petition on the MCD and/ or the private respondents.”, the Court said.
Accordingly, the Court directed the CBI to submit the report of preliminary enquiry on or before the next date of hearing and directed the petitioner to cooperate with the CBI in the matter.
Cause Title: Rahul Kumar v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi (Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:5528-DB)
Appearances:
Petitioner: Advocates Vivek Kumar Shrivastav and Ravi Bhushan Uppadhya.
Respondent: SC Sanjeev Sabharwal and Advocate Shweta Singh
