Allahabad High Court Dismisses With Cost PIL To Enforce Demolition Order Citing Suppression Of Pending Litigation Between Private Parties

The Allahabad High Court has imposed cost of Rs. 25000 on a litigant who filed public interest litigation suppressing the fact of pending litigation between him and the private parties.

Petitioner filed a public interest litigation seeking compliance of a demolition order passed by the respondent authorities. It was pleaded that the land in question was supposed to be a park where construction had been raised by private respondents. Petitioner submitted that even though a demolition order had been passed, it had not been implemented for a very long time.

Private respondents submitted before the Court that the land in question was recorded in their names and appeal filed by the petitioner against their names being recorded for the land was dismissed by the Deputy Collector. The revision against the order of Deputy Collector was also dismissed by the Commissioner. It was submitted that a writ petition has also been filed against the order of the Commissioner which was pending before the High Court. Private respondents argued that the petitioner had suppressed the facts regarding pending litigation in his PIL.

The Court observed that when the counsel for petitioner was confronted about pending litigation, he stated that they were regarding a different land, however, the records reflected otherwise.

The bench comprising of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar observed that “apparently the present petition has been filed by suppressing the pendency of the litigations inter-se parties and the petition in the form of Public Interest Litigation is sought to be utilized seeking implementation of the order against which appeal is pending inter-se parties, orders have been passed by the competent court. The said conduct of the petitioner cannot be countenanced.”

While dismissing the PIL, the Court imposed cost of Rs. 25000 on the petitioner to be deposited with the Legal Services Committee of the Allahabad High Court.

Case Title: Ram Surat vs. State Of U.P. And 9 Others 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 290 [PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 29 of 2024]

Case Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 290

Click Here To Read/Download Order