Ankit Sushil Wadhwa v. State of Maharashtra Home Deptartment Thr. Secre. Home Transpor and Anr.
Public Interest Litigation – maintainability – petitioner admittedly not an aggrieved person
Case brief
What is this about?
Bombay High Court (Alok Aradhe, CJ. with Sandeep V. Marne, J.), PIL No. 51 of 2024, decided 10 June 2025. PIL by Ankit Sushil Wadhwa (counsel: Suhas S. Deokar) against State of Maharashtra & Anr. (Neha S. Bhide, GP, with O. A. Chandurkar, Addl. GP, and G. R. Raghuwanshi, AGP) assailing Section 2(1-A) of the Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Tax Act, 1958, dismissed on maintainability: petitioner conceded he is not an aggrieved person, and statutory validity can be questioned only by an aggrieved person; validity question expressly left open. Keywords: locus standi, aggrieved person, PIL maintainability, motor vehicle tax.
What did the court decide?
None. The PIL was dismissed for want of an aggrieved petitioner; the question of the validity of the statutory provision was kept open to be raised in appropriate proceedings. ¶18