Delhi High Court imposed heavy costs of ₹50,000 on a Petitioner seeking financial assistance of ₹70,000 crores from the Central Government for implementing his project on clean environment.

While dismissing the said PIL, the Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan called the attention to the petition stating it to be full of absurdities and noted that filing of such type of litigation is to say the least, a complete waste of judicial resources.

The writ petition was filed by Mr Trilok Goyal seeking financial assistance or a direction to be issued to the Central Government to implement his project on on maintaining clean and healthy environment in the country.

Although the petition refers to several prevailing problems, including use of water resources, waterlogging in cities, air pollution, road accidents and lack of economic progress, the details of the petitioner’s proposed project haven’t been stated in any form. Upon inquiry, he has suggested that a team of 30 persons from various government departments be placed at his disposal for the said purpose.

The petitioner on being inquired was asked about the budget required for implementation of his proposed project, was uncertain about the exact requirements and merely submitted that the required budget will be approximately as same as the budget allocated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA), i.e. Rs. 70,000 Crores, which may be provided by the respondent authorities.

It appears after hearing the petitioner that this isn’t a PIL but rather a perverse litigation since it is full of absurdity. No ground is made out by the petitioner for allotment of such a huge amount for his project.

The petition lacks several fundamental particulars – including the nature of the project which the petitioner seeks to develop. Hence, public money and resources cannot be wasted in any manner.

The petition was thus dismissed with cost of Rs. 50,000/- to be paid by the petitioner to the Delhi State Legal Services Authority within a period of 4 weeks from 25^th September 2020. The aforesaid amount would be utilized for the programme “Access to Justice”. A copy of the said order will be sent to the Member Secretary, Delhi State Legal Services Authority, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi.

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Order link: Trilok Goyal v. Union of India