HC Slaps Rs 5 Lakh Fine For ‘Frivolous Plea’ Against Ashwini Vaishnaw’s Rajya Sabha Poll

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on a petitioner for filing a “frivolous and vexatious” plea, pertaining to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s alleged false affidavit during 2019 Rajya Sabha elections.

“After having carefully perused the pleadings in the writ petition, we are of the definite view that that the filing of the writ petition is a total abuse of the process of the court. Further, filing of the present writ petition appears to be politically motivated,” the division bench of Chief Justice Charadhari Sharan Singh and Justice MS Raman observed on Wednesday.

While directing the petitioner to deposit the amount in the High Court Bar Association Advocates’ Welfare Fund within three weeks, the bench added, “The exemplary cost is being imposed to discourage the filing of such kind of petitions as such unnecessary litigations makes it difficult for the court to adjudicate genuine litigations.”

On March 19, Bhubaneswar-based company secretary Bhagyadhar Behera had filed the petition through advocate Sidharth Prasad Das, seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to complete the inquiry within a stipulated time on his complaint alleging Vaishnaw had made a false declaration while filing his nominations for elections to Rajya Sabha in 2019.

Vaishnaw was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket from Odisha in 2019. He was re-elected from the state again in 2024 with the ruling BJD’s support.