₹10k fine for wasting court time, money to be used to plant trees
Times of India | 3 July 2024
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court fined a petitioner willing to withdraw his petition for wasting the court’s time and directed the state to use the Rs 10,000 fine for improving the green cover in the precincts of the court.
The case pertains to a petition filed against Trinamool Canning Purba MLA Saokat Molla following an incident in Bhangar. The hearing of the case was going on for quite some time till the petitioner chose to take back his petition.
Justice Amrita Sinha, after taking on record the receipt of Rs 10,000 submitted to the treasury of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, directed that the money shall be utilized by the state forest department for the upgrade of greenery in and around the high court area.“Planting of trees could be at the Eden Gardens or on the strand adjoining the high court,” Justice Sinha ordered.
She also specified the category of trees to be planted. “By trees I mean big trees, trees with foliage such as some of the banyan family or neem and not money plant, sunflower or chrysanthemum,” Justice Sinha said.
Justice Sinha also directed govt pleader Amitesh Banerjee to submit the plantation plan to the court on July 29.
Six days before, on June 26, Justice Sinha had passed a similar direction after imposing Rs 10,000 on a petitioner for filing a false post-poll violence petition.
Justice Sinha had directed the petitioner to deposit Rs 10,000 to the registrar (G&I) of the Calcutta High Court with a direction that the money would be utilized for the renovation of the ladies’ washroom in the main building of the high court.
Justice Sinha had also directed submission of the utilization certificate.