Mohanprasad Tripathy vs State Of Maharashtra & Ors

The Writ Petition No.2564 of 2002 was filed by the petitioners as Public Interest Litigation. According to the appellant, he is associated with various social organisations and devoted to the cause of the poor and needy persons and fighting against the evils of corruption. He filed the above Writ Petition for an enquiry into the affairs in the episode of mustering support for the trust motion concluded on 13.06.2002 in the Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly in favour of respondent No.5 (Mr.Vilasrao Deshmukh), the then Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra.

Pursuant to the said order dt.24.07.2002, the appellant on 29.07.2002 deposited an amount of Rs.1 lakh vide C.No.002327. The High Court, after deposit of the said amount of Rs.1 lakh by the appellant, issued notice to the respondents vide order dt.05.08.2002. During the pendency of the said Writ Petition, the respondent No.5, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, resigned, for inquiry against whom the said Writ Petition revolved around for mustering support for the trust motion concluded on 13.06.2002 in the Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly in favour of respondent No.5 and, therefore, the said Writ Petition became infructuous. The appellant filed an application being Civil Application No.3229 of 2003 dt.11.06.2003 for permission to withdraw the said Writ Petition and for further permission to withdraw the amount of Rs.1 lakh deposited vide C.No.002327 dt.29.07.2002. The said application is marked as Annexure P-3 in these appeals. It is stated in the said application that the Chief Minister himself had resigned from the post of Chief Minister and thus the prayer in the Writ Petition for inquiry against him became infructuous and, therefore, the appellant do not want to prosecute the petition further and, therefore, sought for withdrawal of the same. A prayer for withdrawal of the amount of Rs.1 lakh which was deposited by the appellant was also made.

The High Court vide order dt.13.06.2003 dismissed the said Writ Petition as infructuous as the cause of action in the said Writ Petition has come to an end. However, the High Court dismissed the Civil Application No.3229 of 2003 directing the appellant to file a separate application for withdrawal of the said amount of Rs.1 lakh deposited by him in the court pursuant to the order dt.24.07.2002. The appellant thereafter filed the Civil application No.3778 of 2003 for permission to withdraw the said amount of Rs.1 lakh deposited by him. The said Civil Application No.3778 of 2003 was listed for hearing on 11.08.2003. The High Court adjourned the matter for filing additional affidavit disclosing therein the source from which the appellant collected the said amount of Rs.1 lakh for depositing the same in the court. Pursuant to the said order, the appellant filed an affidavit on 23.08.2003 giving details of the sources through which the said amount was generated for depositing in the Court. The High Court, however, was not satisfied with the said affidavit and vide order dt.02.08.2003 directed the appellant to file proper affidavit disclosing the the exact source of the said amount of Rs.1 lakh. Thereafter, the appellant filed another affidavit on 24.09.2003 giving details of the amount collected through various sources. The first affidavit is marked as Annexure P-7 and the second affidavit marked as Annexure P-8 reads as under :-

Before us, the State is the only contesting respondent. The other respondents have not appeared before us.

We are of the opinion that the two orders passed by the High Court rejecting the prayer of the appellant herein is not correct and is liable to be interfered with. We, therefore, have no hesitation to set aside the orders passed by the High Court in the Civil Applications. The Registry of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Nagpur Bench, Nagpur is directed to refund the sum of Rs.1 lakh forthwith to the appellant. If the amount is deposited in any bank, the appellant shall be entitled to Rs.1 lakh together with the interest accrued thereon.

The appeals are allowed accordingly. There shall be no order as to costs.