It was a classic case of misuse of the Public Interest Litigation. One Mr.Krishna Chandra Sircar had filed a PIL against one day International Cricket Captain, M.S.Dhoni challenging the construction of a swimming pool in his house in the Jharkhand High Court.
The High Court while dismissing the PIL also fined the petitioner a sum of Rs.1 Lakh for misusing the provisions of Law and trying to gain popularity through frivolous means. The case was filed on the basis of unverified media reports and did not have any substantive material beyond this.
But what irked the Court more was the contents of a letter by one of the signatories to the PIL, by name Mr.B.P. Sinha who had advised Mr.Dhoni to refrain from building the swimming pool even if the court grants its permission for this. This letter was produced before the Court by Dhoni’s consul.
According to Justices Mr.Karpagavinayakam and DGR Patnaik this constituted a contempt of court as they opined that the signatory had no business to write such a letter when the matter was subjudice and though an apology was tendered by the petitioner’s consul, they took a dim view of the matter;but it is unclear whether they had ordered further proceedings against the petitioner or the signatory.
However, one positive outcome of such a negative exercise was that when the Judges came to know that the area where Mr.Dhoni is building his house is prone to water shortage, they had ordered the Government to install 15 to 20 hand pumps in that area.
The moral of the story is that from every bad thing at least one good thing comes out.
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