Madhya Pradesh High Court: The Division Bench of S.K. Seth, CJ and Vijay Kumar Shukla, J. declared that a publicity maneuvered petition cannot be entertained by way of Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
A public interest litigation was filed by the petitioner against a government order to waive off short-term agricultural loans advanced to farmers which had been submitted without any spade work just because it was being followed by other States consequently amounting to corrupt practice within the meaning of Section 123 of Representation of Peoples’ Act, 1951.
Considering the contentions and on examination of the petition the Court was not convinced upon the genuineness and doubted the credentials of the petitioner and regarded it as a kind of a publicity act. Also, the Court highlighted the fact that these kinds of petitions cannot be entertained by way of Article 226 of the Constitution of India. It concluded by saying that “The petitioner is asking us to rush in where Angels fear to trade. We are conscious of our limitations and we do not possess the necessary expertise or wherewithal to examine the political matter and in our considered opinion the Court is not the proper forum to thrash out political issues.”
Accordingly, the petition stood dismissed.[Mohit Kumar v. State of M.P., 2019 SCC OnLine MP 108, Order dated 04-01-2019]
