High court slaps 5 lakh fine for frivolous PIL

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan high court on Thursday imposed a substantial cost of Rs 5 lakh on a petitioner for filing a “frivolous” public interest litigation (PIL).
The division bench presided by chief justice Sunil Ambwani slapped the cost on petitioner Dr Mukesh Babu Goyal, who approached the court with an allegation that the Private Colleges Pre Medical Test (PCPMT) conducted by the private medical colleges federation was indulging in malpractices.
Based on the PIL, the high court had stayed the PCPMT exam that was to be held on June 10. During the hearing of the case on Thursday, the Federation informed the division bench of the steps that were already in place for conducting a free and fair examination. The Federation contended that the petitioner had made frivolous allegations through the PIL.
Federation’s counsel R N Mathur said that though the Federation could have itself conducted the exam, still the task was outsourced to the MDS University, Ajmer, which is a government autonomous institution, just to rule out any malpractices. Stressing on impartiality of the exam, Mathur said the students get three OMR sheets, each signed by independent observers.
The Federation told the high court that prior to holding the exam, the district administration is informed. During the exam hours, phone jammers were put in place to check exchange of information through electronic devises. Any complaint regarding the conduct of the examination was attended within two hours after the exam was over. A redressal committee was also in place to attend to complaints of malpractices.