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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court has recently pulled up a clerk of an educational institution and imposed a cost of Rs. 25000 for ‘hoodwinking’ the judiciary.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Ashwin Dhobe was hearing a petition filed by the clerk from Sangli who sought his name to be changed from June 1968 to June 1972.

Vijay Fasale, the petitioner, had approached the high court seeking to change his birth date in the government.

After perusing the documents the high court found that he had cleared class 10th in May 1984. The bench said that,

“If the date of birth of the Petitioner is taken as 2nd June 1972 only for the sake of assumption, it would mean that the Petitioner had passed his 10th Standard in March/April, 1984 at the age of 11 years and 9 months, thereby meaning that he was admitted in the 1st Standard in school, in June 1973 when he was one year old,” the order states.

The high court in its order said that Vijay should not carry the impression that he can get away with an order by hoodwinking the court.

“The time has come for this Court to ensure that litigants who attempt to hoodwink the Court, should realize that they should not file chance cases for invoking the Writ Jurisdiction of the Court. So also, the Petitioner is working as a Clerk in an Educational Institution, and he should not carry the impression that he can get away with an order by hoodwinking the Court. Such message must go out loud and clear,” the order states.

The bench directed that Rs. 25000 shall be deducted from the salary of the Vijay and shall be deposited with the court, within 45 days from the date of order.

Case title: Vijay Shivaji Fasale vs State of Maharashtra