ASHIRBAD PATTNAIK Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioners purportedly in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation seeking reliefs against the State and some of the private opposite parties alleging some illegal mining and transportation of minerals etc. resulting in loss of public exchequer.

(2.) Without going into the merits of the matter, we feel the procedural improprieties resorted to by the petitioners herein and their counsel persuade us to believe that there is something much more than which meets the eye.

(3.) We find from the perusal of the file attached herewith that the same advocate had filed a previous writ petition in the form of Public Interest Litigation being W.P. (C) 16719 of 2020 with different set of petitioners (11 in number) with similar content and seeking identical relief sought herein. We find further from the perusal of the file of the earlier similar Public Interest Litigation-W.P.(C) No.16719 of 2020 attached herewith that the allegation/grievance raised in both the petitions are similar in substance. In fact, it is noticed that the advocate in both the petitions is the same i.e. one Mr. Sambit Samal. What has changed is that the earlier set of petitioners have merely been replaced by another set of petitioners and some minor alterations have been made in the pleadings in the subsequent/instant Writ Petition. The aforesaid writ petition got dismissed as withdrawn by this Court vide order dtd. 21/7/2020. This Court has to be satisfied about the credentials of the applicant; prima facie correctness or nature of information given by him and the information furnished being not vague and indefinite. But in the present case, we find it to be a mischievous petition seeking to assail with oblique motives which prevents us from invoking our discretionary writ jurisdiction.