The Supreme Court on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on an NGO, Suraz India Trust, and its Chairman Rajiv Dahiya for having filed 64 failed Public Interest Litigations over the years. The apex court also prohibited the organisation from filing such petitions again, PTI reported.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar charged the NGO with wasting judicial time and having “cast scandalous and imaginary aspersions”. The bench, also comprising justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul, said, “To stop this practice [of wasting judicial time] once and for all, we hereby direct that Suraz India Trust will not file any petition in public interest before any court in this country.”
The apex court asked the NGO to deposit the fine within a month.
In its detailed order, which was passed after hearing the petitioner for around 90 minutes, the bench noted that Suraz India “did not have any success whatsoever” the 64 times it had filed petitions in the court. “Not a single direction was passed on acceptance of any issue canvassed by Suraz India Trust,” the court said, adding that the NGO had also written to the chief justice and other Supreme Court judges at their houses.
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