HC PULLS UP MLA SHANKAR FOR FRIVOLOUS PIL

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice P.C. Ghose and Vilas Afzulpurkar of the AP High Court pulled up former minister Dr P. Shankar Rao for filing a frivolous plea as a public interest litigation (PIL).

While delivering the orders, Justice Ghose said there was no public interest involved in the appeal and some other factors had weighed on the petitioner while filing the plea.

The former minister had alleged that expensive red sanders, a wood that is rare around the world, was being disposed of by the government at the instance of members of the political executive at throwaway prices. He said that this was not only for unlawful gain, but also caused a huge loss to the state exchequer. He alleged that hundreds of crores of rupees changed hands and sought a CBI inquiry.

The state government, in its counter affidavit, rebutted all charges and placed the relevant documents before the court. It contended that there was no truth in the allegations made against the government on red sander wood issue.

The government was ready to sell the wood at a price of `20 lakh per metric tonne as was alleged by the petitioner.

It may be recalled that on an earlier occasion, the Bench had directed Mr Shankar Rao to deposit `20 lakh to show his bonafides.

The Bench reminded that the rival traders came to the court and were ready to pay `5 lakh per metric tonne.

The petitioner did not pay the money and wanted modification of the order which was declined. The case went up to the Supreme Court and Mr Shankar Rao withdrew his case before the Supreme Court.