Madras High Court imposes 50k costs on litigant for filing "personal interest" PIL

The Madras High Court recently imposed costs of ₹50,000 on a litigant for arguing his case “parallelly” despite having engaged a counsel and for having filed a motivated, personal interest litigation in the guise of public interest..In an order passed on August 5, a bench of Acting Chief Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice PB Balaji dismissed the PIL filed by one Kannan Swaminathan, who had alleged misconduct and corruption in the functioning of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TNWSDB) and sought an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team.However, the TNWSDB filed a counter affidavit in Court stating that Swaminathan was the brother of a contractor, who was registered with the Board and was disgruntled over his recent disqualification from participating in a tender issued by the Board..The Court noted that Swaminathan had suppressed the above facts and that he had failed to establish his bona fide. It also noted that despite having engaged a counsel, Swaminathan kept on interrupting the proceedings and attempted to argue personally via video conference while his counsel was present in the courtroom.“Today, when the matter is taken up, the petitioner having engaged a counsel, was interfering with the court proceedings by arguing parallelly with his counsel, in spite of repeated warning given by us," the Court noted. The Court said that it realised on the perusal of the preliminary objections filed by the Board that Swaminathan had not filed this writ petition in public interest though it was styled as public interest litigation.“The petitioner, under the guise of this Public Interest Litigation, is espousing his grievance towards non-awarding of contract to his brother,” the High Court said..In the light of the fact that there is no public element involved in the instant writ petition and the disruptive attitude of the petitioner during court proceedings with utter disregard to the decorum of the court, we are constrained to dismiss this writ petition with a cost of ₹50,000, the High Court ordered.It directed Swaminathan to pay the costs to Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority..Advocate Thamizhanban appeared for Swaminathan.Additional Public Prosecutor R Muniyapparaj and Government Advocate Kishore Kumar appeared for Tamil Nadu government.Advocate S Mekhala appeared for the TNWSDB..[Read Order]