HC slaps fine of Rs. 25,000 on ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy

The Madras High Court on Tuesday took a stand against ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy for filing frivolous public interest litigations (PIL).

The court imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on the social activist for filing ‘defective and vexatious litigations for gaining publicity’.

The Bench, comprising Justice S. Vaidyanathan and R. Mahadevan, dismissed the petition and directed ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy to pay the amount to the Jammu & Kashmir Flood Relief Fund within four weeks, failing which the Court will be forced to recover it through coercive means as laid down by the Supreme Court.

The court also directed the registry to be careful while accepting such petitions in the future.

Mr. Ramaswamy had filed a representation on September 29 to various government officials, including the secretary to the governor, stating ‘party functionaries who swear allegiance to a criminal cannot form the government’.

Soon after this, he approached the court for directing the officials to pass appropriate orders on his representation.

Describing the petition as vague, the Bench observed that every matter of public interest or curiosity cannot be the subject matter of a PIL.

“Courts are not intended to, nor should they conduct the administration of the country. Courts will interfere only if there is a clear violation of constitutional or statutory duties. None of these contingencies arose in the present case in order to make judicial interference by way of PIL,” the court observed, adding the petition was filed for gaining publicity.