The Allahabad high court on Friday dismissed a PIL challenging a direction by authorities in Amroha district asking chicken sellers not to open shops on the Kanwar yatra route during the ongoing Sawan month.
The petitioner claimed that a blank notice, purportedly signed by the in-charge inspector, Amroha Nagar police station has been served on the shopkeepers in this regard. Because of which the traders are facing problems, it was alleged in the petition that in Amroha city, those chicken shops which do not fall on Kanwar yatra route have been closed by the police.
“The petitioner, an advocate, is seeking to project the case of the shop keepers, which apparently is mala fide, inasmuch as, the same petitioner has made representations seeking closing down of the liquor shops on the ‘Kanwar Yatra’ route. The intention, apparently, has been to misuse the PIL jurisdiction for the reasons best known to the petitioner,” the court observed.
“Filing of the petitions of present nature, without pleading actual cause and producing material in support of the petition and publishing news even regarding filing of the petitions of present nature essentially are Publicity Interest Litigations and not Public Interest Litigations, which conduct of the petitioner, cannot be countenanced,” the court said.
