Financial condition during pandemic: Ex-corporator gets more time to deposit Rs 3 lakh to hear PIL
The lawyer submitted that due to his financial position, which was not good after Covid-19 pandemic, Vikrant Bhimsen Chavan was unable to arrange for the funds to comply with the order dated April 24 and the same shall be paid within one week.
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Due to the pandemic, Vikrant Bhimsen Chavan was unable to arrange for funds immediately and hence needed extension of time, which the court granted. (File Photo) Citing poor financial condition after the Covid-19 pandemic, Vikrant Bhimsen Chavan, a former corporator and Thane district Congress party president, recently sought more time from the Bombay High Court to deposit Rs 3 lakh as a pre-condition for hearing a PIL filed by him.
Chavan told the court that due to the pandemic, he was unable to arrange for funds immediately and hence needed extension of time, which the court granted.
A vacation bench of Justices Sharmila U Deshmukh and Arif S Doctor was hearing an interim application in PIL by Chavan challenging the allotment to manage cycle stands in Thane area on Monday.
On April 24, a bench led by Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala referred to Rule 7A of the Bombay High Court PIL Rules, 2010, and directed Chavan to deposit Rs 3 lakh within three weeks to test his bonafides and as a security if cost is imposed on him. The court said that the matter would be listed for hearing on June 16 if the amount is deposited within the stipulated period.
On May 15, advocate Dushyant Pagare, representing Chavan, filed an interim application seeking reduction in the amount to be deposited and also sought extension of date to deposit the amount. As an alternative, Chavan sought that he be allowed to deposit Rs 3 lakh in two equal instalments. However, Pagare said that he was only pressing for a prayer seeking extension of time to deposit the amount.
The lawyer submitted that due to his financial position, which was not good after Covid-19 pandemic, Chavan was unable to arrange for the funds to comply with the order dated April 24 and the same shall be paid within one week.
“Ordinarily, we would not have been inclined to consider as there is no change in circumstances after the order dated April 24, 2023.
However, considering that the proceedings in the present case are in the nature of PIL, we grant one week’s time, by way of last chance, to comply with the order dated April 24. The applicant to deposit the amount of Rs. 3 lakh within a period of one week i.e. on or before May 22, 2023,” the bench held and disposed of the interim application.
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