The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed a petitioner to deposit Rs 1 lakh as a pre-condition for hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the alleged “erroneous” admission of Rakesh and Dheeraj Wadhawan, directors of Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), to a private hospital in Mumbai.
HC questions petitioner
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) SV Gangapurwala and Justice SG Chapalgaonkar questioned the petitioner’s advocate on his grievance due to such hospitalisation. “PIL one can file, but provided that you are also somewhere affected. How are you affected here in anyway?” questioned ACJ Gangapurwala.
The PIL is filed by social worker and advocate Iram Sayed.
Wadhwans conducting business from hospital: petitioner
The advocate pointed out that while being admitted in the hospital, the directors were conducting their business from there. The advocate said that at the hospital they were “enjoying the entire 10th floor to themselves, other citizens were suffering for lack of place”.
The lawyer also asked the Court to go through the photographs submitted by Sayed. The photos allegedly supported Sayed’s claim that Wadhawans were conducting their business affairs and signing office documents from the hospital itself.
Court asks Rs 2 lakh as pre-condition
The court then asked Sayed to deposit Rs 2 lakh as a pre-condition to hearing the plea.
However, her advocate submitted that such an order may discourage other petitioners from filing PILs. Also, he said that the petitioner, being a social worker and lawyer, may not be in a position to deposit such a hefty amount.
The bench then reduced the amount to Rs 1 lakh and directed her to deposit the amount with the High Court Registry within two weeks.
Wadhawans were arrested in connection with the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank scam involving an amount of over Rs 6,000 crore.
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