The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on a PIL petitioner seeking to stay the declaration of the results of the IIT entrance exams, saying it would have imposed a cost in five figures on him, but considering his young age was refraining from doing so.
The PIL was filed by Rajiv Kumar, who claims himself to be a journalist and wanted to stay the declaration of the IIT/JEEE result citing certain alleged technical flows in the question papers.
A vacation bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad while grilling Kumar’s counsel on the “locus standi” of his client to file such a PIL, asked whether they had given any thought to the implications of seeking such a relief without any “tangible interest”?
The “magnitude” of the implications could be gauged from the fact that more than four-lakh students have appeared in the exams and “no court can pass an order which will affect the careers of four-lakh students,” the court in its order recorded while dismissing the PIL.
“We would have imposed a cost on them in five figures but considering the fact that the (petitioner) is a young man, we are restraining from imposing it,” the bench said while warning Kumar against filing such PILs in future as it amount to wasting of the precious time of the court.
The top court also had a “dig” at the media for giving wide publicity to such PILs.