New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday grilled a man for targeting a particular property in the name of alleged illegal construction, saying it will take action against frivolous PILs.
The court asked the petitioner, who claimed to be a social activist and who wasn’t present at the hearing, and his counsel over how many petitions they have filed in the public interest.
However, it didn’t get any response from the counsel. The court’s ruling came when a woman, against whose home the petitioner sought action, and told the court that that the petitioner and two advocates were harassing her.
“We will take action and send it to the bar council if the process of PIL is abused and if frivolous PILs continue to be filed,” a bench of acting justice Gita Mittal and justice C. Hari Shankar said.
It questioned the counsel fo the petitioner counsel for targetting a property in Lajpat Nagar in South Delhi even though he resides near Laxmi Nagar where there are illegal constructions.
“You didn’t notice any illegal construction in the trans-Yamuna area or you closed your eyes and decided to move to South Delhi area,” the bench asked. When the civic body told the bench it was going to demolish the property's illegal portion, the bench asked it to maitain status quo on it and directed the petitioner to be present before the court on December 13, the next date of hearing.
The woman, a government employee, claimed she and her husband were being harassed and some other cases were lodged against her. The plea also sought direction to the authorities to curb violation of rules of construction applicable to Kasturba Niketan area in Lajpat Nagar 2 falling under the JJ slums.
