The Gujarat High Court today disposed off two petitions filed against Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavana Mission in which the chief minister had undertaken a fast for three days. The petitions were filed by an NGO Vikalp Trust and an individual Ramesh Mota.
As the petitions were filed on the basis of newspaper reports and media coverage, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice AY Dave and Justice JB Paradiwala disposed the same and suggested petitioners to file their petition afresh after verifying the news reports.
Counsel KG Pandit, representing Vikalp Trust, argued that the petition has been filed to seek a direction for recovering the money spent from the state exchequer during the three days long sadbhavana mission.
Pandit and Ratana Vora, the counsel representing Mota, presented to the court newspaper clippings which stated that amounts to the tune of Rs. 50 crore was spent by the state during the three day programme. They argued that the chief minister had undertaken a personal programme and cannot be allowed to spend money from the state exchequer.
The high court however highlighted the rule book whereby under chapter 2 rule 3(b) of Gujarat High Court PIL rules, 2010, if a petition is filed on the basis of news reports, then it should be verified by the petitioner personally which as per the high court the petitioners failed to do.
The bench also observed and objected to the fact that the trust had given the copy of the petition to the media even before the matter came up before the court to gain publicity.
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