Bengaluru
The Karnataka High Court on Friday waived the ₹50,000 cost earlier imposed on advocate Syeda Neelufur, who had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking to stop the release of the film ‘Jolly LLB 3’, which hit theatres on September 19.
The court had dismissed the plea on September 18, terming it an “unjustifiable imposition on judicial time” and directed that the cost be deposited with the court registry. Failure to do so, it had warned, would invite coercive steps.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel pleaded for relief, stating that Neelufur was a new lawyer who did not fully understand the implications of filing such a petition. He also informed the bench that she had recently lost her father and was undergoing emotional distress.
Initially, the bench, comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi, was reluctant to waive the penalty, observing that filing frivolous PILs amounts to misuse of judicial processes. “We are not interested in imposing costs, but the court’s time cannot be used for publicity. Anyone filing a PIL must be conscious of their responsibility,” the bench remarked.
However, considering the mitigating circumstances, the court accepted an unqualified apology from the petitioner. In its order, the bench noted that despite the lack of merit in the petition, it was waiving the cost purely on compassionate grounds, cautioning the petitioner to exercise greater care in the future while approaching the court.
