PIL jurisdiction being mischievously used to settle scores: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday bemoaned the misuse of public interest litigation (PIL) to get relief denied in other fora and jurisdictions [Ajay Kumar Yadav @ Ajay Rai v State of Bihar and ors]..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan said that such misuse was eating into the time that High Courts could otherwise use to dispose of long-pending appeals."The problem is that this PIL jurisdiction is being mischievously invoked in various High Courts now to settle personal scores. Somebody goes in PIL when you cannot succeed in civil courts or anywhere and gets orders. And whole day instead of deciding criminal appeals pending or civil appeals which are pending for decades, they are issuing absurd directions in PILs," Justice Kant remarked..The Bench made the oral remark while taking a dim view of demolitions carried out against certain properties in the Patna Sadar area. The demolition followed a March 18 Patna High Court order on a PIL seeking the demolition of certain allegedly unauthorised constructions. Notably, the demolition was carried out on March 23-24, despite the Supreme Court's March 22 decision to order status quo until the High Court disposes of the matter, which consisted of a batch of petitions. Effectively, the top court had stayed the demolitions on March 22.However, the State went ahead with the demolitions by citing the March 18 High Court order and filed a compliance report before the High Court. The Supreme Court condemned the move today. "We strongly deprecate the conduct of the authorities and the lame excuse given before us. If the appeals had already been decided, it was incumbent upon them to move an appropriate application for vacation or modification of orders. A District Magistrate had no business to sit over an order of this court and resume the exercise despite a stay order," the Court said..Haldwani Eviction: Supreme Court berates Railways for relying on order in PIL to evict people.The High Court was directed to hear and dispose of the remaining related cases on their own merits and in accordance with the law, uninfluenced by the March 18 judgment on the PIL petition.Pertinently, the apex court added that those affected by the March 23-24 demolition would be entitled to compensation for damage to their properties, even if they are eventually found to be unauthorised.This compensation is to be recovered from the Bihar government, the Patna Municipal Corporation and the errant officials involved, the Court said. The top court clarified that this order has been passed in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, given the willful disobedience of earlier orders..Advocate Rishi Kumar Singh Gautam appeared for the petitioners who approached the Supreme Court for protection from demolition.Standing Counsel Manish Kumar represented the State of Bihar.On July 24, another Bench of the Supreme Court had objected to the Indian Railways piggybacking on orders passed in a PIL petition to evict persons at Uttarakhand's Haldwani instead of following the procedure prescribed under law.