Madras High Court Restrains Petitioner From Instituting “Frivolous” PIL’s For One Year Without Court’s Approval

The Madras High Court recently restrained a petitioner from instituting any Public Interest Litigations.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee & Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy while recently disposing of a PIL filed by the petitioner desiring issuance of a direction for all candidates contesting in the Legislative Assembly to undertake a compulsory medical test, has restrained the petitioner from instituting any PIL for a period of one year without obtaining the leave of the relevant Bench. 

“This is utterly a frivolous matter and it is hoped that some degree of responsibility will be exercised before rubbish is thrown at the Court in future.”, the Bench remarked.

The petitioner SPV Paul Raj,  in the present PIL prayed for issuance of Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to issue necessary orders to carry out compulsory medical test to all the candidates contesting in the ongoing Tamilnadu legislative assembly elections so that 6,29,43,512 voters can be protected from infecting the deadly Covid-19 virus.

“There is no basis for such prayer and there is no need for the candidates to subject themselves to such medical tests merely because an odd citizen desires it.”, the Court noted while disposing of the petition. 

Case Title: SPV Paul Raj v. The Chief Electoral Officer, Chennai, Tamil Nadu| WP(MD) 7078 of 2021