New Delhi: Cautioning that “passions should not be heightened”, Delhi High Court on Wednesday rapped an NGO for repeatedly filing frivolous public interest litigations aimed at alleged encroachments by mosques and dargahs in the city.In a span of two petitions — one filed against NGO Save India Foundation and the other filed by the organisation itself — the court took a dim view of the “sheer misuse of judicial process”. A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia also flagged the tendency to first file a PIL and then comment about it on social media. “You are already before a court. Whatever you have to say, convey your arguments to the court. We will only request, rather appeal, not to heighten the passions,” the bench orally observed, as it allowed one Mohd Kamran to raise issues relating to recent demolitions around a mosque in the Turkman Gate area, before the single judge hearing the issue.Kamran, through senior advocate Jatan Singh, sought a stay on any further action against the Faiz Elahi mosque, highlighting that a graveyard may be affected. He also urged the court to levy heavy costs on the NGO for allegedly misusing PILs to target a particular religion.The court, however, declined to pass any order, allowing him to approach the single judge dealing with the demolition. It said any encroachment on public land had to be removed, declining any stay.But the court also pulled up the NGO’s counsel. “Don’t test our patience. We were very tolerant with you,” it warned, when the lawyer claimed public land was being encroached upon as Waqf properties.The court earlier also questioned the bona fides of the organisation while hearing a PIL alleging illegal construction of a mosque on govt green land in Bahapur village, observing that the petitioner appeared to be misusing the PIL jurisdiction by repeatedly raising similar issues. Society faces numerous serious problems, but the petitioner seems to selectively highlight only such issues, prompting the court to question if the petitions are genuinely in public interest, it noted.
