Single-judge bench dismissed a PIL seeking free land for a railway project under Article 14, holding the matter falls within the policy/executive domain and dismissed the petition as frivolous subject to costs.
Writ petition dismissed with costs of Rs. 10,000/- to be deposited with the High Court Mediation Centre.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
I N THE HI GH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDI GARH
Civil Writ Petition No.2471 of 2014 (O&M) DATE OF DECI SI ON: 10.02.2014
Ram Kumar
…..Petitioner
versus
The State of Haryana and others
.....Respondents
CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTI CE SANJAY KI SHAN KAUL, CHI EF JUSTI CE HON’BLE MR. JUSTI CE ARUN PALLI
Present: Mr. Pritam Saini, Advocate for the petitioner
SANJAY KI SHAN KAUL, CHI EF JUSTI CE : (Oral)
The petitioner, a resident of Mohali, Punjab, seeks to file the present public interest litigation against the State of Haryana claiming that he is an RTI activist and is, thus, entitled to do so. The petitioner by the present petition seeks a direction against the respondents to provide land free of costs for the project of Chandigarh - Yamuna Nagar Rail Line on the basis of parity in the case of Rohtak – Hansi Rail Project. The petitioner has averred that there is uneven development in the State of Haryana. The pace of development in the Rohtak area is more and seeks to highlight how certain projects have been cleared quickly while the project in question has been pending for alleged lack of finances. It is, thus, his say that there should be only one model of development across the State and this Court should intervene to ensure that the allocation of funds by the State for development of different areas of the State should
Chand Parkash 2014.02.10 15:48 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document
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be equal, failing which it amounts to discrimination and, thus, violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
We had at the threshold put to learned counsel for the petitioner that the matter in question is purely within a policy domain. How development takes place in a State, which area has to be given priority, which project has to be handled in which manner and on priority or otherwise and how funds allocation takes place are all m atters within the executive dom ain. In fact, we put to learned counsel that he seeks us to play a role of the Finance Minister of the State of Haryana by reallocating the budget.
Learned counsel for the petitioner, however, persisted in arguing the matter and has taken us through the petition and argued at length.
In our view, the petition is based on a complete misconception of very notion of separation of powers which exists between the executive and the judicial domains. The country has adopted a democratic method of election of Governm ent which in turn reflects the aspirations of the people. It is for the State Governm ent to allocate funds and decide how development has to take place in the State. This is not a job for the Court to do whose job is to interpret and enforce the law. Merely because the petitioner is an RTI activist has not given him a licence to file all kinds of petitions, not even being a resident of the State of Haryana. It appears that this is a proxy political battle rather than anything else.
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We feel it is the time when an end should be put to such kind of frivolous PILs which have different motives and consume precious judicial time. Cost is, thus, the only panacea.
We, thus, dismiss the writ petition with costs of ` 10,000/ -, to
be deposited with the High Court Mediation Centre within 10 days from today.
( SANJAY KI SHAN KAUL ) CHI EF JUSTI CE
10.02.2014 ( ARUN PALLI ) parkash* JUDGE
Chand Parkash 2014.02.10 15:48 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document
3 issues framed by the court
Whether the Court can direct the State to allocate land for development projects based on parity across regions.
Whether the petitioner is entitled to file this public interest litigation as an RTI activist.
Whether the petition should be dismissed as a frivolous PIL involving policy and executive domain matters.
Ram Kumar
The State of Haryana
Sanjay Ki Shan Kaul
Arun Palli
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
