Madhya Pradesh High Court Dismisses PIL Filed 'In The Guise Of Preventing Criminal Action', Imposes Cost Of Rs. 1 Lakh

The division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice P.K. Kaurav was essentially dealing with a writ petition filed in the nature of a PIL by an Association of Medical Colleges.

The case of the Petitioner was that the State Government was proposing to register criminal cases against its member colleges for committing fraud, alleging that illegal scholarships were being taken by its students. The Petitioner argued that in the guise of such claims, the State Government was unnecessarily harassing the colleges. The Petitioner sought for parity with other medical colleges that were also facing similar allegations but were exonerated.

Considering the submissions of the Petitioner, the Court opined that the case had no merit and was not maintainable. Questioning the locus of the Petitioner, the Court observed-

The charge against the colleges is one of committing of fraud in the matter of scholarships being given to the students. The allegation is that the students are collecting scholarships from various colleges by shifting from one college to another. Whether the allegation is right or wrong is not for this Court to decide. It is suffice that the allegations have been made against individual colleges. Therefore, it is they, in their individual capacity, that would have right to defend themselves. The same cannot be done by the association in the guise of a public interest litigation. There is no commonality of interest involved herein.

The Court held that the petition was filed under the guise of preventing criminal action, which amounted to misuse of the provisions of PIL. For the same reason, the Court imposed cost of Rs. 1 lakh on the Petitioner-

The individual colleges are very well entitled to defend themselves but in the guise of preventing a criminal action, no public interest litigation would lie. Hence, we are of the view that since the public interest litigation has been misused by the petitioner, it would be appropriate to impose a cost of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rs. One lakh) on him.

With the aforesaid observations, the Court dismissed the petition and further directed the Petitioner to deposit the amount of cost with the Registry.

Case Title: PRIVATE PARAMEDICAL COLLEGES WELFARE ASSOCIATION  v. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH AND ORS.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (MP) 89