Prabhat Agarwal Alias Naveen Kumar vs. State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Agriculture Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others - Allahabad High Court, 13 May 2024

Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC-LKO:36451-DB Court No. - 2 Case :- PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 401 of 2024 Petitioner :- Prabhat Agarwal Alias Naveen Kumar Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Agriculture Civil Secrt. Lko. And Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ram Ujagir Verma,Sachin Verma Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Naresh Chandra Mehrotra Hon'ble Rajan Roy,J. Hon'ble Om Prakash Shukla,J.

Vakalatnama filed on behalf of opposite parties no. 2 and 3 by Shri Ajeet Pratap Singh, Advocate, is taken on record.

Heard.

This petition has been filed by the petitioner styled as Public Interest Litigation seeking following reliefs :- “a) a writ order or direction in the nature of Mandamus commanding and directing the opp. party no.2 to take legal action against the opp. party no.3 regarding corruption in Mandi Parishad. b) a writ order or direction in the nature of Mandamus commanding and directing the opp. Parties to the trading firms which have purchased any commodity related to food grains from outside Uttar Pradesh should immediately be banned from buying and selling on the license given by the Mandi Committee. c) a writ order or directions in the nature of Mandamus commanding and directing the opp. parties no.3, Secretary Mandi committee must be expelled from the investigation as he is not taking any interest to conduct speedy investigation and also not interested to take action against the firms involved in Mandi Tax evasion proved on the basis of irregularities found in GSTR 3-B filed by them and the evidences available with him. d) a writ order or directions in the nature of Mandamus

commanding and directing the opp. Parties investigation should be transferred to the Special Investigation Branch of State GST Deptt. with immediate effect to conduct an impartial investigation into the entire case. e) any other orders which this Hon’ble court may deems fit and proper in the circumstances of the case may also be passed in favour of the petitioner. d) cost of the petition be also awarded to the petitioner against the opp. parties.”

Not satisfied with the credentials of the petitioner, who has simply mentioned in para-3 that he is a social worker, we asked the Counsel for the petitioner as to what social work is there to his credit or for that matter what public interest has been espoused by the petitioner earlier i.e. prior to the filing of the writ petition, no reply much less a plausible one was put forward. We further asked as to what is the source of livelihood of the petitioner, but nothing was informed. Then, the Counsel for the opposite parties no. 2 and 3 Shri Ajit Pratap Singh placed before us certain documents, according to which, the petitioner has been licensed by the Krishi Utpadan Mandi Samiti, Lucknow for operating at Mandi Level as ‘dalal’/broker, meaning thereby he has a license to work as ‘dalal’ in the same Mandi, a fact which has not been disclosed. This is nothing but an attempt to style a petition as a Public Interest, whereas possibly, the petitioner either has a personal interest involved in it or is a proxy litigant for somebody else. We do not approve of such practice.

We, accordingly, dismiss this petition only on the aforesaid

ground of concealment of the material fact and lack of proper credentials.

It is made clear that dismissal of this writ petition does not amount to rejection of allegations of corruption etc. against the concerned nor an affirmation of the same, meaning thereby that these issues are open for being inquired and agitated by/before the competent authority, whether it be Mandi Samiti, Mandi Parishad or before a Court of law. ( Om Prakash Shukla, J. ) ( Rajan Roy, J. ) Order Date :- 13.5.2024 Ajit AJIT KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench