The Supreme Court has ordered the Bombay HC to return the money to a Nagpur resident who runs a social organisation called 'Public Parliament'.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ordered the Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) to return one lakh rupees to a Nagpur resident who runs a social organisation called 'Public Parliament'. He had deposited this amount with the HC four years ago as a precondition for listing a PIL by the organisation's head Mohan Prasad Tripathy seeking an inquiry into the "affairs in the episode of mustering support for the trust-vote motion" for Vilasrao Deshmukh.
But after Deshmukh won the confidence vote and retained the post of CM, Tripathy sought withdrawal of his PIL. He was not interested in pursuing the petition. HC allowed him to withdraw the PIL but refused to return one lakh rupees that was neither the cost nor donation to any charity. Moreover, it asked Tripathy to file an affidavit giving details of the sources from which this amount had been raised.
He withdrew Rs60,000 from the 'Public Parliament' account, his family and friends gave him Rs25,000 and his wife contributed Rs15,000. Tripathy also filed a statement by his chartered accountant confirming this.
Though none disputed his claim, the HC refused to return Rs one lakh to Tripathy. Aggrieved by this denial, he petitioned the Supreme Court. A Bench of Justices AR Lakshmanan and LS Panta quashed the HC order refusing to return the amount to Tripathy. "Having observed that the writ petition has become infructuous, HC ought to have ordered the refund of Rs one lakh," observed the apex court.
Referring to HC's observation that the source explained by Tripathy for depositing Rs one lakh "does not merit acceptance" as it had "serious doubt about the source" from where this money was deposited, the apex court said, "HC, in our opinion, has entered into an unwarranted discussion in regard to the deposit made by Tripathy and the source from which the said amount of Rs one lakh came to be deposited."
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