On Friday 21st October 2022, the Supreme Court junked a petition filed by an environmentalist in which he had asked the court to make him the President of India. A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli lambasted the petitioner and called the petition to be ‘scurrilous’. The petitioner in the petition had sought that current President Droupadi Murmu from the post should be removed from the post and the court should make him the president instead.
The court asked, “What kind of scurrilous petitions are these? How is this filed under Article 32?” The judges also instructed the court registry not to accept such petitions anymore. The petitioner claimed in his appeal that he was denied the opportunity to contest the presidential elections where Droupadi Murmu defeated opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha by a wide margin. He urged that his voice be heard and that he would do his part to make the world a better place.
The petitioner environmentalist said, “Please hear me for two minutes. A recent example of Sri Lanka where citizens entered the President’s home, what is happening in Russia, I will work for whole world where things are messy. President’s role needs to be redefined.”
However, the supreme court bench rejected his pleas and asked him to stick to his role as an environmentalist. The court said, “If you are an environmentalist you can make speeches with your specialized knowledge but not this.”
Then the court dismissed the plea. The bench ordered, “The petition is frivolous and an abuse of the process of the Court, the allegations made are expunged from the record, and Registry are requested not to entertain such pleas in the near future.”
Despite the fact that Indian courts are overburdened with lakhs of pending cases, bizarre cases keep coming up in the courts regularly. In May this year, a couple in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar moved court against their son and daughter-in-law, demanding either a grandchild or compensation of Rs 5 crore. In 2019, a Mumbai man sued his parents for giving birth to him.
