Absentee litigant fined

Chennai, Feb 13 (UNI) Madras High Court today immposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Public Interest Litigant 'Traffic' Ramasamy for not appearing before the court on a petition filed by him.

When the petition, challenging the announcement celebrating first day of Tamil month 'Thai' as Tamil New Year, came up for hearing, a Bench comprising Mr Justice S J Mukhopadhya and Mr Justice M Venugopal took serious view of the absence of the petitioner and slapped the fine.

The Bench later dismissed the petition at the admission stage itself, stating that it was not in public interest and was aimed at maligning the political leaders.

The Bench directed Mr Ramasamy to pay the fine within a month to Tamil Nadu State Legal Services.

If he did not pay the fine, it was for the government to recover it from the petitioner and deposit the same with the legal service authority.

Meanwhile, the Bench also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on a practicing advocate Manikandan as he was not present in the court when a petition pertaining to a murder case came up for hearing.

The petition was filed by the Advocate, on behalf of one Priya from Villuppuram, seeking a direction to the police to conduct a thorough investigation into her daughter's murder.

The fine should be deposited with the legal services authority, the bench ordered.

UNI XR-GV JJ MSJ KN2022