Ruing that a large number of private interest litgations are being filed in the guise of public interest litigations, the Delhi High Court has directed CBI to inquire whether a businessman, who has filed a plea challenging allotment of government land to private persons, has any personal interest in the matter.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan directed CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry to ascertain the relationship of the PIL petitioner with the persons named as accused in an FIR lodged with the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police concerning alleged fraudulent sale of a piece of land in south Delhi.
"Keeping in view the serious allegations that have been made as well as the fact that a large number of private interest litigations are filed in the guise of Public Interest Litigations to settle private lis (dispute), we direct CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry to the limited extent of finding out the relationship of the petitioner with any of the accused in the aforesaid FIR..." the bench said.
The bench also directed CBI to probe whether the PIL has been filed at the instance of any of the accused in the FIR.
The bench passed the order on the PIL filed by one Ram Niwas Jain alleging that wrongful allotment of government land is being made by officers of the land and building department of Delhi government and other officers working in the revenue department.
While in his affidavit, Ram Niwas had averred that he has no personal interest in the outcome of the PIL and that the same has been filed in public interest, an intervener in the matter said the petition was an outcome of a personal dispute and intends to mislead the court.
