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A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh of the Delhi High Court today listed for January 25, actress and environmentalist Juhi Chawla's appeal against dismissal of her suit against 5G roll-out in the country, stating that there is "no grave urgency" in the matter.

While initially the Court had offered to hear the matter post lunch, Sr. Adv. Salman Khurshid representing Chawla requested that it may be listed after the oncoming winter vacation.

The bench expressed its concern on this, saying, "The (impugned) order was passed it's June, you've come in December."

It then proceeded to list the matter post vacations.

Chawla has moved Delhi High Court challenging a single judge decision which had dismissed the civil suit against 5G roll-out. The Court had opined that the plea is misconceived and frivolous and had imposed a cost of Rs. 20 lakhs on her.

The appeal emanates from a civil suit which contested the roll-out of 5G telecommunication systems saying that it threatens human, wild and plant life. It asked the Central Government not to roll out 5G technology in the country.

In her appeal, Chawla stated that the single bench order dismissing the suit is bad in law as a suit can only be dismissed once it has been allowed to be registered as a suit by the Court.

The actor stated that the single bench imposed costs on her even after the plaint had not been permitted by it to be registered into a 'suit', and that the bench was acting without jurisdiction, contrary to law.

She also challenged the single judge's finding that the motion was preferred only to gain publicity, whose motive was inferred by the learned single judge merely from the fact that she had circulated the video-conferencing link of the High Court on her social media accounts which had resulted in repeated disruption of the Court proceedings held on June 4, 2021.

Justice JR Midha who had presided over the matter had observed that the “application is misconceived and frivolous. Petitioners have done utter disfavour with regards to the law of court fees."

The Court had further held that the suit is defective as it has not complied with order 6 of CPC; Order 6 Rule 9 of CPC provides that content of the document shall not be re-produced.

The Court further noted that the suit has been filed for publicity and had imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh for wasting time of court.

Cause Title: Juhi Chawla and others v Science and Engineering Research Board and others