Delhi High Court rejects review petition against appointment of Justice DY Chandrachud as CJI; upholds ₹1 lakh costs on petitioner

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the review petition challenging the appointment of Justice DY Chandrachud as the Chief Justice of India (CJI). .The review petition was filed against an order of the High Court dated November 11, 2022, by which the petition challenging appointment of CJI Chandrachud was dismissed by the High Court with ₹ 1 lakh costs. A bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan upheld that order and the ₹1 lakh costs imposed on the petitioner, Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari."No ground is made out to review the order dated November 11. The review petition is dismissed. It appears that the review petition has been filed in the guise of seeking a re-hearing of the petition which is not permissible in review. Accordingly the petition is dismissed," the Court ordered.A bench said the petitioner could file an appeal to the Supreme Court if he so desired."Take whatever action you want to take. This does not fall under review. Review is only when there is an error. Error has not been pointed out by you either in your (review) petition or your arguments," the Court said..The petitioner said that he was not supplied with a copy of the November 2022 order in Hindi and the same was unconstitutional. "This order is unconstitutional. I wasn't given an Hindi copy of the order," Tiwari said."There is a reason why the order is given in Hindi. Even that is written in the Constitution," the bench responded."The bench then was talking to me in English... Can the court force me to learn English. India is independent now," Tiwari maintained."How many languages are there? How will you talk to people who do not speak Hindi," the bench asked."Yes, Hindi. All Indian languages come from Sanskrit," Tiwari said. "Are you going to teach all of them Sanskrit? If yes, who will do it? Government right," the bench shot back..A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad had in November dismissed the petition observing that it has now become a fashion to approach courts making scandalous allegations against judges. The Court had imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on the petitioner who is the president of an organisation named Gram Uday Foundation.The Court while dismissing the main plea in November had also said that a similar petition had already been dismissed by the Supreme Court and, therefore, the petitioner chose to come to High Court "camouflaging the same issue as a fresh cause, which reflects on his oblique motive and highlights the questionable credentials of the Petitioner".The Court had said that it was a “classic case of an action without a cause, full of surmises, conjectures and wishful thinking”..Tiwari then filed the present review petition against the dismissal order which came before the bench of CJ Sharma and Justice Prasad.However, the judges chose to recuse from the case as Tiwari made some remarks against the court and the bench..The matter was then listed before the present bench.

Delhi High Court rejects review petition against appointment of Justice DY Chandrachud as CJI; upholds ₹1 lakh costs on petitioner

Prashant Jha

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