Hyderabad, March 10: AP High Court chief justice Nisar Ahmed Kakru yesterday penalised a petitioner for trying to take the court for a ride by turning some land belonging to a school into a graveyard.
The court imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on the petitioner, Maruti Vaddera Association, for filing a public interest litigation (PIL) that was also heard by it earlier.
A division bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar imposed Rs 10,000 costs on Maruti Vaddera Association, who filed a writ seeking a direction not to alter the purpose of a piece of land in Kukatpally area other than the graveyard. The Association told the court that it filed the petition in public interest and contended that the land was earlier earmarked for a graveyard and later the authorities allotted it for some other purpose.
During hearing, the chief justice noticed that a PIL was also filed earlier by another society on the same piece of land urging that the land be allotted for the playground of a school and the court decided the matter in its favour.
After noticing the earlier PIL, the chief justice expressed his anger on the petitioner and said how can they file another PIL on the same issue which was already decided by the court.
“We are seeing that school children are sitting in verandhas due to lack of space and proper buildings.
Even knowing of the fact that the matter was already decided by the court, now you are trying to turn a school ground into graveyard,’’ the chief justice observed.
Dismissing the petition, the bench directed the Vaddera Association to pay Rs10,000 to the AP Legal Service Authority in a month. The bench also directed the registry to recover the amount from the petitioner in accordance with law, in case of failure by the association to pay the amount.
Meanwhile, the chief justice also expressed his displeasure during the hearing as there was no representation from the government’s counsel. “The Court will summon the concerned authorities, if their counsel are not present in the court during hearing,’’ the Bench warned.
-Agencies