New Delhi: With a view to preventing frivolous PILs being filed across the country, the Supreme Court on Friday slapped Rs 5 lakhs fine on a PIL petitioner Syed Kamaruddheen, an automobile mechanic from Tamil Nadu who had challenged the permission granted to a super special speciality hospital in Thanjavur.
The Chief Justice J.S. Khehar, heading a three-judge Bench told senior counsel Mahalakshmi Pavani, appearing for the petitioner “You are challenging the construction of a super speciality hospital in a semi-urban area. Your PIL is for a public cause or anti-public.”
The Bench which included Justices D .Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul rejected the plea of the senior counsel that the hospital was constructed in violation of several town planning rules including those that impinged upon air safety norms. Senior counsel K. Subramanian, appearing for the hospital opposed the allegations.
According to the petitioner as per the rules any structure within a 2,400 meter radius from the local airport should be less than 12 meter in height. However, in this case the hospital S R Meenatchi Hospital measured 25 meter in height as the management had constructed a 6 storied super structure as against the sanctioned 4 floors. The rules were violated with the active connivance of the government machinery and then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had inaugurated it in 2003, the petitioner said.
The petition claimed that the construction of the illegal structure posed a grave threat to the safety of all air passengers moving in and out. Besides the safety of the patients and people visiting the said hospital was also in danger, it was claimed.
However, an angry CJI asked: “How can you challenge the construction of super speciality hospital which is meant for people?” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the other judge in the bench, said, “You are a front for some person.”
The CJI then asked the senior counsel “how much cost we should impose on you? As the counsel pleaded that the petitioner was a mere mechanic, Justice Khehar said “He has engaged a senior counsel. The senior the counsel the higher the cost should be.” The counsel said she was a small senior counsel and pleaded that no fine be imposed.
However, the bench was not impressed with the argument as it imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the petitioner to be paid within 4 weeks. If the petitioner fails to pay the amount within the stipulated time, the matter should be listed again after four weeks, for enhancement of the fine amount, Justice Khehar added.
