HC raps petitioner for terming its order 'obnoxious', 'biased'

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday took to task a petitioner, who in an affidavit had referred to one of its orders as "obnoxious", "biased" and "devoid of merit", asking him to either change what he said or face contempt action.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar was enraged by the petitioner's affidavit, which was filed in response to its queries, including his means of livelihood, the number of PILs he has filed in the last three years and details of the organisation he was employed with.

When the matter was called for hearing, the bench asked petitioner Abhijit Mishra to first read out his affidavit, where at several places he has termed the high court's direction to him as "obnoxious", "biased" and "devoid of merit", and asked him whether he stood by what he has stated.

 

When Mishra replied in the affirmative, an angry bench said,"Change your affidavit or we will issue contempt."

Sensing the forthcoming contempt action, Mishra began to repeatedly apologise and "beg for mercy".

"I sincerely apologise. I seek the mercy of the court. I beg for mercy. It was a bad judgement call on my part. It was lack of acumen on my part," he said repeatedly and assured the bench that he would file a corrected affidavit within 24 hours.

The bench, which grilled him for several minutes, asked him whether by filing the affidavit he was seeking exemption from answering the court's queries.

The court on September 20 had posed the queries after noting that Mishra had filed a "glut of matters", purportedly in public interest, and in several of these matters, he had not disclosed wherefrom he had acquired information regarding the issues raised in his petitions.

The affidavit was filed in response to the court's earlier queries which were posed while hearing Mishra's PIL seeking directions to the Delhi government to ensure that all hospitals under it comply with labour laws.

"We can ask anyone about their background. We can ask you also. The details or data we had sought, we can ask for in any PIL. But your statements were deliberate. They do not appear to be a bad judgement call.

"All your claims of being an enlightened citizen are completely belied by your statement," the bench said, and added "If you behave like this, we will stop any PIL by you."

After Mishra repeatedly apologised, the court allowed him to file a corrected affidavit and listed the matter for hearing in February.