The Supreme Court fined a man Rs 5 lakh for claiming in a PIL that the oath taken by the top justice of the Bombay High Court was "defective," calling it a frivolous attempt to gain notoriety.
A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ruled that because the oath was administered by the Governor and signed to after the oath was delivered, such objections could not be made.
The Supreme Court ruled that this was only a frivolous attempt to use the PIL authority to get attention for the petitioner.
"The petitioner does not, and cannot, contest that the oath of office was administered to the proper person." Such objections cannot be raised because the oath was administered by the Governor and subscribed to after the oath was administered.
"We are clearly of the opinion that such frivolous PILs occupy the time and attention of the Court, deflecting the Court's attention from more serious matters and consuming the infrastructure of the Court's judicial manpower and Registry," the bench, which also included Justices JB Padriwala and Manoj Misra, said.
It stated that the time has come for the court to levy exemplary costs in such frivolous PILs.
"We accordingly dismiss the petition with costs of Rs 5,00,000, which shall be deposited by the petitioner in the Registry of this Court within a period of four weeks," the court stated.
If the cost is not submitted within the specified time frame, it would be collected as arrears of land revenue through the Collector and District Magistrate in Lucknow, according to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Ashok Pandey, who claimed he was wronged by a 'defective oath' administered to the Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature in Bombay.
According to the petitioner, the Chief Justice did not utilize the phrase "I" before his name when taking the oath, which is a violation of the Constitution's Third Schedule. He further claimed that the representatives and administrators of the governments of Daman and Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, and Dadar and Nagar Haveli were not invited to the oath ceremony.
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