NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday junked a "frivolous" plea by a lawyer challenging the restoration of Lok Sabha membership of Nationalist Congress Party leader Mohammed Faizal with Rs one lakh cost.
Lucknow-based petitioner Ashok Pandey contended before a bench led by Justice B R Gavai that once an MP loses their office due to conviction in a criminal case, they will continue to be disqualified until their acquittal by a higher court.
The bench, also comprising justices Aravind Kumar and Prashant Kumar Mishra, wondered how the petitioner, despite being a lawyer, could file a frivolous petition.
After hearing brief submissions, the bench dismissed the petition and also imposed Rs one lakh cost on the lawyer.
The court directed the lawyer to deposit Rs 50,000 to the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, and the other Rs 50,000 to the Supreme Court Bar Association.
"If the costs are not deposited within a period of four weeks from today with SCOARA and SCBA, the same shall be recovered as arrears of land revenue," the bench said in its order.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud had on October 13 imposed Rs five lakh cost on Pandey for filing another PIL claiming that the oath administered to Bombay HC chief justice Devendra K Upadhyay was defective as he did not use the word 'I' during the swearing in.
On October 9, the Supreme Court had stayed the Kerala High Court's October 3 order which has dismissed a plea filed by Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal for staying his conviction in an attempt to murder case.
Faizal was disqualified on October 4 as the NCP MP. He was first disqualified on January 13 after the sessions Court's order
A trial court had on January 11, 2023, sentenced Faizal and three others to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs one lakh each for attempting to kill Mohammed Salih, son-in-law of the late union minister P M Sayeed, during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
