Juhi Chawla’s 5G case hearing interrupted by man singing her songs
An unidentified person disrupted proceedings of the Delhi high court three times on Wednesday... until he was muted and finally thrown off the online hearing because the participant did not stop singing songs from popular movies of actor Juhi Chawla -- one of the plaintiffs in the plea being heard by the judges.
The person first sang the song “Ghoonghat ki aad se dilbar ka” from Chawla’s 1993 movie Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke as soon as she joined the proceeding on Wednesday. Justice JR Midha directed that the person’s account be muted in the virtual hearing, but the person started singing once again; this time, it was a song from the 1995 movie Naajayaz.
Chawla was attending the hearing from South Africa. A day before, she shared the link of the court proceedings on her Twitter account.
Eventually, the user was thrown out of the digital hearing, but mere minutes later, another song came on -- presumably by the same participant through another account before this user too was banished.
Justice Midha ordered court officials to identify the person, share the details of the disrupter with the Delhi Police, and issue a contempt notice.
The HC, which was hearing a case filed by Chawla on the potential damage of setting up 5G wireless network in the country, said on Wednesday the plea by the actor and two others was “defective” and filed for “media publicity”. Justice Midha, who reserved the order on the case, said the issue should have been taken up with the central government, instead of directly approaching the courts.
The court also questioned why 33 parties were made defendants in the plaint.
“It is not the sweet will of the plaintiff to join as many parties and cause of action... It is a defective plaint. This suit has been filed only for media publicity and nothing more than that. It is very shocking,” the court noted.
On Monday, Chawla and social workers Veeresh Malik and Teena Vachani moved the HC court, alleging that 5G technology threatens to provoke serious radiation impact on humans and permanent damage to natural ecosystems. “Plaintiff has no personal knowledge of the plaint. I am surprised...,” the judge said.
To be sure, the World Health Organization says no adverse health effect has been “causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies”.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Department of Telecommunications, said the suit was an ill-conceived litigation, adding that the plaintiffs need to show how the technology is wrongful.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing private telecom companies, also argued that launching 5G technology was a policy of the government and as a policy, it cannot be a wrongful act. He too said it needs to be proven how the issue is a public nuisance.