The Manipur High Court has recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed raising the issue of misuse of development funds released under the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994.
The PIL has been filed by Thongam Sanajaoba Singh and others. The State of Manipur and its Director, Municipal Administration, Housing &. Urban Development (MAHUD), filed Miscellaneous Case of PIL raising the issue of maintainability of the case. It was their claim that the PIL as framed, was not in conformity with the High Court of Manipur Public Interest Litigation Rules, 2019.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Lanusungkum Jamir noted that though, B. Prem Sharma, counsel for the petitioners, took time earlier to respond to the aforestated miscellaneous case, he did not choose to file a reply till date.
“When this Court put in place specific rules for the filing of public interest litigation cases, it is not open to the learned counsel to file such cases ignoring the said rules. On the face of it, we find that sufficient grounds have been raised in the miscellaneous case, manifesting that the present case, as framed and filed, is not in conformity with the said rules,” observed the Court.
Therefore, the PIL is accordingly dismissed on this short ground by the Court leaving it open to the petitioners to file a case afresh in accordance with the procedure prescribed under the rules.