Ayodhya Ram Mandir: Bombay HC dismisses PIL challenging Maharashtra govt's decision declaring Jan 22 public holiday
Bombay High Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by four law students challenging the Maharashtra government's decision declaring a public holiday on January 22, on account of the Pran Pratishtha ceremony at Ram Lalla Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, news agency ANI reported. The petitioners claimed that the holiday declared by the Maharashtra government was arbitrary and not in the power of the state govt to announce such a holiday.
A bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Neela Gokhale—which held the special hearing filed by four law students from Maharashtra and Gujarat— observed that the petition was "politically motivated, frivolous and vexatious" and advised the students to "utilise their time in doing better things". “We have no doubt that this is an abuse of the process of law.
Such proceedings cannot be kept pending and are required to be dismissed with exemplary cost. However, we refrain ourselves from imposing cost with the hope the petitioner in future be more careful when they attend to appear in person in a PIL,"the division bench observed.
Observing the PIL to be "politically motivated" the court said, "The petition has political overtones and it appears to be a petition that is politically motivated and a publicity interest litigation. A glare for publicity seems to be apparent from the tenor of the petition and the arguments made in the open court," the order read.
“There are …serious statements in the petition and it is difficult to believe that law students would have the ability and our imagination more particularly before entering a noble profession they can make such statements," the order added. The Maharashtra government argued that declaring a holiday falls within the
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