"Frivolous": Supreme Court Rejects Plea Seeking Mandatory Karva Chauth for All Women
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order which had refused to direct the Union of India and the State of Haryana to enforce mandatory observance of the Karva Chauth festival for all women, irrespective of their social or personal status.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N.K. Singh termed the petition "frivolous," observing that the petitioner had failed to disclose any constitutional basis for such a directive, or even any legal bar that prevented certain categories of women from observing the festival.
“This is a PIL through which the petitioner sought a direction to the Union and the State to take suitable measures for enforcement of Karva Chauth for all women. He failed to show under which law women were barred from observing the festival,” the Court noted.
The Bench further remarked that the petitioner effectively sought a mandamus to compel the government to enact a law making the observance of the festival mandatory, even proposing penal consequences for non-compliance, an approach the Court found deeply problematic.
The Court noted that the High Court had rightly imposed a nominal cost of Rs. 1,000 on the petitioner and recorded that the Counsel had hastily withdrawn the plea after its dismissal.
“We do not find any ground to interfere with the impugned order,” the Court said, cautioning that, “if the petitioner attempts to file any such petition directly or indirectly, we hope the High Court will take exemplary action.”
Case Title: Narender Kumar Malhotra v. Union of India