Public interest litigation (PIL) is a weapon that has to be used with great care and circumspection. The judiciary has to be extremely careful to see that behind the beautiful veil of public interest an ugly private malice, vested interest or public interest seeking is not lurking,” observed Himachal Pradesh high court (HC) while imposing a cost of ₹50,000 on a petitioner, who has filed a PIL alleging assault and torture of inmate of a correction home in Shimla.
Terming the PIL as “publicity interest litigation”, the division bench of acting chief justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and justice Satyen Vaidya, in its order of December 23, while clearing the staff of wrongdoing, directed petitioner Ajai Srivastava, chairman of Umang Foundation, “to be careful in future” while adding “merely being acknowledged for doing some good in the past does not give licence to anyone to do something bad.”
In May, Srivastava, a retired professor, in his letter to the chief justice of Himachal Pradesh high court alleged gross violation of human rights of the children in conflict with law, lodged at the Observation Home, Hira Nagar, Shimla. He wrote the letter after he was informed by a child in conflict with the law, released on May 7, 2024, from the Hira Nagar Home and restored with family, about the beatings, torture and misbehaviour at the observation home. His letter was treated as a criminal writ petition PIL.
“For, it is settled that even a good cause can be lost if the petitions are filed on half-baked information without proper research as this could have a serious effect on third party rights lying in the instant case” observed the court.
Costs to be paid as compensation to correction home staff
“Eventually, the allegations set out in the petition were not true. However, in the meanwhile damage to the private respondent(s) was already done because consequent upon the issuance of notice by this court, as a knee-jerk reaction, the services of the superintendent of the observation home, Hira Nagar, were terminated. On account of vide publicity, his reputation and image in the society unduly came to be maligned,” observed the court.
“It is on account of the wild, reckless and unsubstantiated allegations levelled by the petitioner that the superintendent has lost his job apart from being condemned and maligned. Even a cook, kitchen helpers and a security guard have though not lost their jobs but their reputations have been tarnished in the public and thus their rights need to be vindicated and their reputations restored,” ruled the court.
Out of the costs of ₹50,000, high court has directed that ₹35,000 shall be paid to the superintendent of Observation Home, Hira Nagar, Shimla, who had lost his job owing to the allegations and ₹5,000 each shall be paid to cook, kitchen helper and security guard as token damages, within two weeks.
The court directed the government to maintain the status-quo qua the staff of the correction home “as existing before the letter dated May 13, 2024, along with all consequential benefits.”