The Patna High Court imposed a Cost of Rs. 5,000/- (five thousand) on the petitioner and dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking various reliefs purportedly to ensure that the disability certificates are issued properly and none who is not disabled gets the benefit of the reservation made to various posts under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
The petitioner, to ventilate his grievance, has spoken of only one example being the 14th respondent who is said to have been issued with a disability certificate of 40 per cent, which enabled him to be a beneficiary under the Bihar State Disability Pension Scheme (BDPS) and also obtain an appointment as a Constable in the advertisement issued by the Central Selection Board of Constables (CSBC) on 11.11.2020.
The general reliefs prayed for by the petitioner is only to agitate the cause against the 14th respondent who is appointed under the disability quota. It is trite that if the petitioner has an objection against the appointment of a disabled person; who is not entitled to claim such disability, necessarily appropriate authorities would have to be approached first.
The Division Bench of Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarthy observed that the advertisement itself is of the year 2020 and there is nothing stated as to when the 14th respondent was appointed.
Further, the representations submitted by the petitioner , are regarding verification of disability certificates issued by the Civil Surgeoncum-Chief Medical Officers of different districts of Bihar. The petitioner cannot invoke the jurisdiction under Article 226 to go into a roving inquiry into all the disability certificates issued.
The Court finds the petition to be misconceived and it can be inferred that the petitioner’s grievance is with respect to the 14th respondent’s appointment. The petitioner has wantonly approached the Court to ventilate a private vendetta in a Public Interest Litigation, without any bona fides. There is also not sufficient material to substantiate the contention of improper Disability Certificates being granted by the Civil Surgeon-cum-Chief Medical Officers.
“We find absolutely no reason to entertain the writ petition and finding the Public Interest Litigation to be agitating the cause against a single person, that too with respect of an appointment the party respondent obtained, we impose a cost of Rs. 5,000/- (five thousand) on the petitioner, payable to the Bihar State Legal Services Authority. The said amount will have to be paid within a period of two weeks, failing which the Bihar State Legal Services Authority will be entitled to proceed for recovery by taking measures similar to recovery of arrears due on land through the District Magistrate, in which event the petitioner shall also be liable for the charges incurred for making such recovery, which have to be recovered by the State”, the order reads.