The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said it was “shocked” by a plea from actor Juhi Chawla and other plaintiffs challenging the Rs 20 lakh costs imposed on them in relation to the petition they had filed against the rollout of 5G technology in India, Live Law reported.
Last month, the court, while dismissing the plea, had stated that the actor, along with the other plaintiffs, abused the process of law and imposed costs of Rs 20 lakh, including unpaid court fees, on them. The same was to be deposited within a week.
Chawla and the other plaintiffs paid the costs, but they also filed applications for refund of the same, per the Live Law report.
While hearing the application which sought refund of the court fees paid, Justice Midha said, “For the first time in my judicial career, I’m seeing a party not willing to pay court fees!”
“On one hand, you move the frivolous application and on the other hand, you withdraw the application and plaintiffs are not even willing to gracefully deposit the costs,” a PTI report quoted the judge as adding.
The judge was hearing three applications from the actor for: refund of court fees, waiver of costs, and replacing the word “dismissed” in the judgement with “rejected”.
Justice Midha also stated that the court took a ‘lenient’ view when it imposed costs of Rs 20 lakh on Chawla and others and did not initiate contempt proceedings. He further said, “This is the most frivolous application I’ve seen in my life,” and reminded Chawla’s counsel, “We were inclined to issue contempt notice, but didn’t.”
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Last month, Chawla, along with Veeresh Malik and Teena Vachani, moved the Delhi High Court against the proposal to set up 5G network in India. They had said that until the short-term and long-term negative impacts of the technology on human, animal, and plant life were known, its rollout should not be approved.
The petition was, however, dismissed by the court which said the plea was “defective and done for media publicity.” The court also issued a contempt notice against some miscreants who continuously interrupted the hearing by singing songs from Chawla’s films. Noting that the actor had circulated the link of the virtual hearing on social media, Justice Midha had said it appeared that the suit was filed for publicity.