The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Dollar' Seshadri case: High Court order set aside

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Wednesday, Mar 30, 2011
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‘Dollar' Seshadri case: High Court order set aside

J. Venkatesan

A serious error committed: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court setting aside the order of extension of appointment granted by the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam to ‘Dollar' P. Seshadri after he attained the age of superannuation.

A Bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar allowing an appeal from Mr. Seshadri against the impugned judgment held that the High Court had committed a serious error in permitting S. Mangati Gopal Reddy, an agriculturist, to pursue the writ petition as public interest litigation.

Justice Nijjar, writing the judgment, said, “The parameters within which PIL can be entertained by this court and the High Court, have been laid down and reiterated by this court in a series of cases. By now, it ought to be plain and obvious that this court does not approve of an approach that would encourage petitions filed for achieving oblique motives on the basis of wild and reckless allegations made by individuals, i.e., busybodies; having little or no interest in the proceedings.”

Credentials

The Bench noted that the credentials, the motive and the objective of the petitioner “have to be apparently and patently above board. Otherwise, the petition is liable to be dismissed at the threshold.”

It said, “The High Court ought to have satisfied itself with regard to the credentials of Mr. Reddy before entertaining the writ petition, styled as PIL. Even a cursory perusal of Paragraph 2 of the affidavit filed in the High Court by him would clearly show that he has no special concern with the extension granted to the appellant.”

Since the benefit has been denied to the appellant without any fault on his part, we direct the Board to consider whether the appellant ought to be granted further extension to compensate for the loss of service since April 28, 2010.

sThe present appeal is directed against the A.P. High Court judgment setting aside the extension granted to Mr. Seshadri on the writ petition filed by Mr. Reddy.

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