New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on an advocate, who sought quashing of the August 7 notification restoring the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
A bench comprising justices Bhushan R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta termed the petition as “frivolous”. It further added that petitions of such nature meant to only waste the precious time of the court and also of the entire Supreme Court registry. Gandhi’s membership was revived following the apex court order staying his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case relating to ‘Modi’ surname.
The apex court noted that the court had in October last year, dismissed a similar PIL by advocate-petitioner Ashok Pandey while imposing a fine of ₹1 lakh on him for challenging the restoration of Lok Sabha membership of the Nationalist Congress Party leader Mohammed Faizal.
Pandey, in the present plea, claimed that the disqualification based on conviction and sentence will continue to operate till it is set aside in appeal. He also sought a direction to the Election Commission to notify the vacancy of the seat being held by Gandhi and holding fresh elections there.
During the hearing today, the apex court said every petition needs to go through multiple verification exercises in the court registry. It further added that exemplary cost ought to be imposed on such a petition to deter litigants from misusing the jurisdiction of public interest litigation (PIL).
In August last year, the apex court last year paved the way for revival of Rahul Gandhi’s membership of Parliament, which he had lost because of the two-year-jail term in the 2019 criminal defamation case. The apex court had stayed the Congress leader’s conviction on the grounds that the trial judge failed to explain why Gandhi deserved the maximum punishment under the law. The bench had said that continuation of Gandhi’s disqualification would deprive the people of his constituency of a proper representation in Parliament.
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