TEHSEEN POONAWALLA Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ANR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A The Context

(2.) Since the petitions are founded on the two articles published in Caravan, it would be necessary to extract them in this judgment:

(3.) Tehseen Poonawalla filed a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution before this Court on 11 December 2017. He informs the Court that the proceedings have been initiated "bona fide for the welfare and benefit of the society as a whole..with no ulterior or mala fide motive". He has averred that the petition was instituted for the "safety and security of the public and that of public servants" who "may not be aware of their legal rights" or possess the means to approach this Court. Besides the above writ petition, this Court has before it two other writ petitions under Article 32 on the same issue, one by Jayshri Laxmanrao Patil Writ Petition (C)No 73 of 2018 and another by Bandhuraj Sambhaji Lone Writ Petition (C)No 20 of 2018. Each of these petitioners has made similar averments, stating that the proceedings have been initiated for the "welfare of society" without any personal interest. Two writ petitions Public Interest Litigation (Crl) No 2 of 2018 and Public Interest Litigation(Crl) No 1 of 2018 were filed in the High Court of Judicature at Bombay : Bombay Lawyers' Association instituted the proceedings on 4 January 2018 and Suryakant (alias Suraj), on 27 November 2017. The relief sought in the batch of cases instituted before the Bombay High Court is similar to what is sought before this Court. All the petitions are essentially based on the articles which have been published in the Caravan on 20 and 21 November 2017. Other media publications, both print and online carried news reports emanating from the Caravan articles. Among them are the Indian Express, Quint, Wire and Scroll.