Assam: Gauhati HC Dismisses ‘Frivolous’ PIL by AKDS, Imposes Cost of Rs 20,000

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court, in a recent decision, dismissed a PIL petition filed by the Amri Karbi Development Society (AKDS) for being devoid of any merit, terming it a 'frivolous one' and 'abuse of the process of the Court' and imposed a cost of Rs 20,000 on the Society.

The single-judge bench of Justice N. Unni Krishnan Nair, while hearing the PIL petition (PIL/80/2020) filed by AKDS and two others, ruled that the petitioners miserably failed to demonstrate any genuine public harm or public injury caused to the public at large by the actions of the respondent authorities assailed in the PIL.

The petitioner, AKDS, working to protect and uplift the Amri Karbi Community residing in the state, excluding the scheduled districts, instituted the PIL petition, purportedly, for ventilating the cause of the common people, as they cannot approach the court in their individual capacity due to financial incapacity.

The petitioners have raised grievances with regard to the formation of the "Assam State Capital Region" vide enactment of the "Assam State Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2017", on the ground that the tribal belts and blocks existing in the Kamrup (Metro) District, on being included within the said Region, the protected classes of persons residing in such belts and blocks would be denied the protections extended to them under the provisions of Chapter X of the Assam Land & Revenue Regulation, 1886. The further grievance raised in the present PIL petition pertains to the provision made in Section 33 of the said Act of 2017, which empowers the authorities to levy "betterment charges" on the landowners within the "Assam State Capital Region" proportionate to the increase of the value of such land on account of the execution of development projects/schemes. The landowners, being marginal farmers, would not be able to bear such betterment charges and would be forced to part with their plots of land.

The other grievance raised in the PIL petition pertains to the acquisition of 144 Bighas and 19 Lechas of land in Damara Pathar village, Panbari Mouza, Sub-Division Guwahati, Kamrup (Metro) District, for the purpose of handing over the same to the Assam Rifles. It was projected that the acquisition of the said land had resulted in the displacement of the tribal people on the land.

The further contention raised in the PIL petition pertains to the inaction on the part of the respondent authorities in evicting the non-tribal people occupying the lands in the belts and blocks.

Based on the above premises, the petitioners filed the present PIL petition.

At the outset, the court, on perusal of the materials brought on record in the PIL petition, had required the petitioners, herein, to satisfy itself with regard to its bona fides in filing the present PIL petition, as they had not set out any legal or factual context to support the grievances raised by it in the matter.

The court observed that a conjoint reading of the statements made in the PIL petition, as well as the counter affidavits filed by the respondent authorities in the matter, reveals that the petitioners herein have miserably failed to authenticate why the actions projected against the respondent authorities were against the public interest, enough to attract the jurisdiction of the court to interfere in such matters.

The court was, prima facie, not satisfied with the bona fides of the petitioners herein and stated that the present PIL petition has not been so instituted for advancing the public interest but for 'oblique purpose and seeking publicity'. Moreover, the petitioners failed to demonstrate any genuine public harm or public injury caused to the public.

The present PIL petition, in the court's considered view, was instituted by a 'busybody' for extraneous and ulterior motives, and such a PIL must necessarily be discouraged in terms of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Balwant Singh Chaufal (supra). Accordingly, "the present PIL petition mandates to be dismissed, which we, accordingly, do", the court ruled.

Further, in view of the fact that the present PIL petition was already held by the court to be a frivolous one and an abuse of the process of the court, a cost of Rs 20,000 was imposed upon the petitioners.

The court further stated that the imposed cost must be deposited by them before the Registry of the Court within a period of 1 (one) month and asked the Registry to deposit the same in the account of the Assam State Legal Services Authority.

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