- A PIL challenging the appointment of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, the new Chief Justice of India was dismissed on 11.11.2022 by the Delhi High Court.
- The High Court of Delhi held that offices of constitutional functionaries shall not be open to denigration by "self-styled warriors of public interest" on grounds that they were superficial allegations with no substantive question as to law or fact.
- The division bench comprising Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and Subramonium Prasad observed, "Whereas wishful thinking, in particular, is not a prohibited activity, but when it forms part of the grounds of a petition before the court, it amounts to an abuse of the process of the court and any such attempt must be repelled in a manner that it sends a tenacious message."
- It was noted that Article 124 was adhered to, concerning the appointment of CJI.
- The bench said that the Supreme Court has also noted several instances where it has become a trend to approach the court by making “scandalous allegations against judges”.
- Thus the PIL was to be dismissed with exemplary costs and several one lakh rupees are to be deposited towards the "Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund‟.
- Tiwari argued that the appointment violated the constitutional provisions and that there must be an immediate stay on the appointment of the new CJI.
- It was observed that the PIL was filed to attract publicity without any material support and is to be crushed at the threshold.
- The allegations in the petition were against social interest and also against the dignity of the constitutional office.
- The scandalous allegations against the CJI in the PIL had no concrete basis or materials to support them.
- Allegations have been made against other high dignitaries as well like the Union Law Minister and such PIL are assuming more publicity-oriented litigation instead of public-oriented.
- The liberalized rule of locus standi and the permission of the citizens to approach constitutional curt s are met with sad reality in litigations.
- In recent times, PIL is being abused rather than safeguarding the interest of the public, to gain cheap popularity or to blackmail people.
- Tiwari claimed himself in the PIL as "a well-trained intelligent common citizen of the nation of India" and that the security agency will conduct an inquiry against the new CJI to verify that he does not have any link with anti-nationals and Naxalite Christian terrorists.
- He also states that the new CJI, Justice Chandrachud will be aware of the assassination plans against the Prime Minister and that lawyers like Prashant Bhushan and Indira Jaising want the CJI to be their accomplices.
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