Cuttack, April 25: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 5 lakh on a petitioner for filing a ‘frivolous’ plea against Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s election to the Rajya Sabha in 2019.
The High Court also stated that the filing of the writ petition is a total abuse of the process of the court.
The court directed the petitioner to deposit the amount in the High Court Bar Association Advocates’ Welfare Fund within three weeks.
The petitioner Bhagyadhar Behera, a 64-year-old Bhubaneswar-based company secretary, in his petition had sought direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to complete the inquiry within a stipulated time on his complaint. He had alleged that the Railway Minister Vaishnaw had made a false declaration during filing his nominations for elections to Rajya Sabha in 2019.
The division bench of Chief Justice Charadhari Sharan Singh and Justice MS Raman was hearing the petition.
“After having carefully perused the pleadings in the writ petition, we are of the definite view that that the filing of the writ petition is a total abuse of the process of the court. Further, filing of the present writ petition appears to be politically motivated,” observed the bench while dismissing the petition.
The bench said, “The court exercising power of judicial review has a duty to discourage the filing of frivolous and vexatious writ applications as such unnecessary litigations makes it difficult for the court to adjudicate genuine litigations.”
Vaishnaw was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket from Odisha in 2019. He was re-elected from the state in 2024.
