AKASH BANSAL Vs. DY COMMISSIONER, SDMC AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We had, vide our order dated 17th April, 2018, dismissed these writ petitions, with costs, quantified by us at Rs. 50,000/-, to be deposited by Mr. Akash Bansal and Mr. Navin Kumar Jha, advocate, with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee, within eight weeks from 17th April, 2018, and to place proof of such deposit before the Registrar (Appellate) of this Court. We had stated that reasons for the order would follow; by this judgement, we proceed to record the said reasons.

(2.) This case presents an example of a malaise that has, in the recent past, begun to gnaw at the vitals of the entire public interest litigation institution, which is the life blood of the exercise of human rights jurisdiction by this - and, indeed, by any - Court.

(3.) Akash Bansal, a young man of 27, student of law at the Chaudhry Charan Singh University at Meerut and self-professed public interest vigilante, moved this Court by way of WP (C) 9816/2017, alleging that rampant unauthorised construction was taking place at Khasra Nos 595 and 658, Devli Village, New Delhi, and exhorting us to intervene and ensure that the said illegal and unauthorised constructions were demolished forthwith. The writ petition was filed through Mr. Navin Kumar Jha, advocate. The writ petition has been signed on 25th October, 2017. It is significant to note that the affidavit, accompanying the writ petition, was verified and attested by the Oath Commissioner on 25th October, 2017, and that the writ petition was first filed on 30th October, 2017 and, after removing the objections noted by the registry, refiled on 3rd November, 2017. Mr. Akash Bansal disclosed his address, in the affidavit accompanying the writ petition, as "RZ-2966/33, Tughlakabad Extension, New Delhi-110019".