Bombay HC says PIL by MLA politically induced

MUMBAI: Bombay HC has held that two PILs filed by one Janak Vyas and BJP MLA Girish Mahajan against state’s amended rule of open voting to elect of its assembly speaker are “politically induced litigation”.
The HC bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik on March 9 dismissed the two petitions and forfeited a collective security deposit of Rs 12 lakh –including Rs 10 lakh from Mahajan — the two were directed to shell out for hearing the PIL after state’s preliminary objection to their maintainability.The amount shall be used for charitable purposes to provide better facilities to senior citizens in old age homes and destitute and orphan children.
The HC said the present petitions “serve only one purpose”—“clog the stream of justice by preventing the court from considering more deserving cases…“
The HC said, “Although both (senior counsel Mahesh) Jethmalani and (counsel Subhash) Jha have taken exception to the amendment... they have utterly failed to demonstrate any infraction, much less genuine infraction...’’