Supreme Court: The bench of Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta, JJ has imposed a cost of Rs. 50, 000 on petitioners for filing a “publicity interest litigation” seeking initiation of proceeding against former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for his “pro-China” comments over the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
As reported by India Today, Farooq Abdullah had last year, in an interview, said,
“Whatever they are doing at LAC in Ladakh all because of the abrogation of Article 370, which they never accepted. I am hopeful that with their support, Article 370 will be restored in J&K,”
Stating that the expression of a view which is a dissent from a decision taken by the Central Government itself cannot be said to be seditious, the Court observed that there was nothing in the statement which we find so offensive as to give a cause of action for a Court to initiate proceedings.
“Not only that, the petitioners have nothing to do with the subject matter and this is clearly a case of publicity interest litigation for the petitioners only to get their names in press.”
In a bid to discourage such endeavours, the Court dismissed the Writ Petition with costs of Rs.50,000/- which is to be deposited with the Supreme Court Advocates Welfare Fund within four weeks.
[Rajat Sharma v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 162, order dated 03.03.2021]
