LI Network
Published on: 23 July 2023 at 12:40 IST
The Madhya Pradesh High Court, Indore Bench, has imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on Congress party leader Raghunandan Singh Parmar, who had filed a petition seeking an inquiry into the Patwari Recruitment Exam scam.
The Division Bench, comprising Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice Hirdesh, took this decision after finding that the petitioner had not followed the proper procedure of filing a representation before the State Government and had directly approached the High Court.
According to the court, this act of the petitioner was in violation of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Rules. The Bench stated that the petitioner’s actions had led to a waste of the court’s valuable time. Advocate Rohit Sharma appeared on behalf of Raghunandan Singh Parmar, while Additional Advocate General Anand Soni represented the respondents.
The petitioner had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) under Article 226 of the Constitution.
In the petition, the petitioner did not challenge any specific order but urged the court to direct the respondents to constitute a fact-finding committee, led by a retired or sitting judge of the High Court or a high-level committee, to investigate the alleged scam in the recruitment of Patwari Examination conducted by the M.P. Employees Selection Board in March-April 2023, with the results declared on July 11, 2023.
Raghunandan Singh Parmar, claiming to be an honest and vigilant social worker, asserted that he had no personal interest in the PIL and that his sole purpose was to safeguard the larger public interest and the integrity of the Patwari recruitment examination.
He further alleged that the recruitment process was marred by a high-level scam, which deprived deserving candidates of Patwari appointments.
However, the High Court found that the PIL was not maintainable due to the non-compliance of Rules 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 of Chapter XIII-A of the M.P. High Court Rules 2008. Additionally, an inquiry report was already pending before the Lokayukt M.P. Further, the court noted that the PIL was solely based on newspaper reports without any research or disclosure of the information’s source.
As a consequence, the High Court directed the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs. 10,000 as a fine for wasting the court’s precious time. The petitioner was instructed to make this payment to the High Court Legal Services Committee, Indore, within 30 days. Consequently, the High Court dismissed the petition filed by Raghunandan Singh Parmar.