The apex court on Friday quashed a petition against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley levelling charges of “plundering” capital reserves of the Reserve Bank of India to waive off loans of certain companies. The court has imposed a fine of ₹ 50,000 on the lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma who had filed the PIL against Jaitley.
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The bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice SK Kaul rejected the petition stating, “We do not find any credible reason to heed this PIL.” Reprimanding Manohar Lal Sharma for the frivolous PIL against Jaitley, he said “You have done great work in the past. You want us to rein in the finance minister. Why are you damaging your credibility.”
Gogoi also said that time has to ban Sharma from filing PILs. “Mr. Sharma, the day has come to ban you from filing PILs”, the CJI said.
Furthermore, the bench said, “What’s this PIL? We cannot allow you to go ahead with such misadventure. You are bringing disrepute to the institute. Why should we approve this PIL?” The Supreme Court also directed the registry to not accept any PILs from Sharma unless he pays a fine of ₹ 50,000.
Chief Justice Gogoi has kept the roster of the fresh PILs with him, thereby exercising a tight grip on the petitions filed. He has also made it amply clear that he is not going to waste the apex court’s time by allowing the registry of such frivolous petitions.
Advocate M L Sharma is known for filing frivolous PILs and he has faced the ire of the apex court earlier also for the same. He has been fined by the court multiple times for his petitions. In 2014, he was fined ₹50,000 and ₹25,000 by the court on two occasions. Numerous petitions filed by Sharma have been rejected by the court in the past, he was warned several times not to file such frivolous petitions.