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Source: Times of India dated 06.09.2019
By Rosy Sequeira
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on a serial litigant for misusing the court's orders to raise money on a crowd-funding site to "fight corruption" in schools affiliated to the Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations board (CISCE).
A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre also directed the board to file an FIR for extortion against Dombivli resident Sapan Shrivastava. Bengaluru-based crowd funding platform Milaap Social Ventures India Private Limited has been directed to block the page put up by him seeking funds.
The order came on Shrivastava's PIL to direct filing of a criminal case against the board for cheating and conspiracy. He contended CISCE, which operates 2,200 schools across India and 200 schools in Maharashtra, hid the fact that it's not recognised by the HRD ministry "since last 50 years". He claimed he learnt through RTI the Centre recognises only CBSE and NIOS boards.
The judges pointed out that though the RTI reply states that since education falls under the Concurrent List, boards are also set up by states, he moved against CISCE without checking with the states.
Senior advocate Raju Subramaniam explained that CISCE is recognised by almost all states and said Shrivastava had "threatened" some schools. He added that Shrivastava has been crowd-funding by presenting himself as "championing the cause of education" and putting up the court's orders. Shrivastava said "crowdfunding was for a social cause".
The judges saw it as "yet another case of frivolous PIL misusing the process of this court" and decided "strict action is required to be taken against the petitioner". Dismissing the PIL, the judges directed Shrivastava to compensate CISCE within four weeks and asked the board to file an FIR of extortion against him. They also directed the high court registry not to entertain any petition from him until he files proof of the cost paid.
When Subramaniam said CISCE would not like to accept the amount, the judges said it could donate it to a student fund. Noting that Shrivastava's webpage is on Milaap, they directed it to block it since he is using it to generate funds by misusing the orders of this court. Milaap co-founder Anoj Vishwanath said a user had pointed out a discrepancy in Shrivastava's petition in July, and it has been blocked since then.
By Rosy Sequeira
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on a serial litigant for misusing the court's orders to raise money on a crowd-funding site to "fight corruption" in schools affiliated to the Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations board (CISCE).
A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre also directed the board to file an FIR for extortion against Dombivli resident Sapan Shrivastava. Bengaluru-based crowd funding platform Milaap Social Ventures India Private Limited has been directed to block the page put up by him seeking funds.
The order came on Shrivastava's PIL to direct filing of a criminal case against the board for cheating and conspiracy. He contended CISCE, which operates 2,200 schools across India and 200 schools in Maharashtra, hid the fact that it's not recognised by the HRD ministry "since last 50 years". He claimed he learnt through RTI the Centre recognises only CBSE and NIOS boards.
The judges pointed out that though the RTI reply states that since education falls under the Concurrent List, boards are also set up by states, he moved against CISCE without checking with the states.
Senior advocate Raju Subramaniam explained that CISCE is recognised by almost all states and said Shrivastava had "threatened" some schools. He added that Shrivastava has been crowd-funding by presenting himself as "championing the cause of education" and putting up the court's orders. Shrivastava said "crowdfunding was for a social cause".
The judges saw it as "yet another case of frivolous PIL misusing the process of this court" and decided "strict action is required to be taken against the petitioner". Dismissing the PIL, the judges directed Shrivastava to compensate CISCE within four weeks and asked the board to file an FIR of extortion against him. They also directed the high court registry not to entertain any petition from him until he files proof of the cost paid.
When Subramaniam said CISCE would not like to accept the amount, the judges said it could donate it to a student fund. Noting that Shrivastava's webpage is on Milaap, they directed it to block it since he is using it to generate funds by misusing the orders of this court. Milaap co-founder Anoj Vishwanath said a user had pointed out a discrepancy in Shrivastava's petition in July, and it has been blocked since then.
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