Actor Juhi Chawla’s case against the implementation of 5G technology in India has been dismissed by the Delhi High Court on Friday. The High Court said in its order that “it appears that the suit was filed for publicity” and has imposed a fine of Rs. 20 lakh on the actress. In its order to dismiss the plea, the bench told that the lawsuit was defective and wasted the court’s time. Justice J R Midha’s bench slammed Chawla and her co-plaintiffs for filing a “defective” plea and wasting the court’s precious time and told them that the fine will be used to help road accident victims. Calling it an “abuse of process of law”, the Delhi high court on Friday said that actor Juhi Chawla filed her plea merely for “publicity”, slapping a cost of Rs 20 lakh while dismissing her suit completely which was against the launch of 5G network in India.
In its order, the Court said that “it appears that the suit was for publicity”. It further stated that Juhi Chawla circulated the link of the hearing on social media, which created disruption thrice during the court proceedings. “Delhi Police shall identify the persons and take action against those who created a disruption,” the Delhi High Court added. The HC also disparaged Chawla’s conduct to gain publicity by posting the link for an online hearing of court proceedings on her social media account, blaming it to result in repeated interruptions by unknown persons. On Wednesday, during the first hearing, an anonymous intruder had disturbed court proceedings by singing some of the songs of the movies starred by Juhi Chawla thrice after intervals. While the court staff removed the person, he kept joining under different IDs to interrupt till the time the proceedings got locked.
In the beginning, the man also asked in the meeting “where is Juhi Ma’am I can’t see her” and when the judge asked the court master to mute the concerned person, he said “you want to mute me. Oh really!” The Court kept the order reserved in the matter and said nothing about it on Wednesday. But the bench posed several questions during the hearing to Advocate Deepak Khosla, who appeared for plaintiff Juhi Chalwa in the matter. It asked whether the plaintiff had reached out to the government through any representation before approaching the Court. The High Court had further asked the advocate whether there is a cause of action for coming to the Court. “If they (government) take a decision against you, then you can come”, the Court had suggested.
The actor has been seen actively creating awareness on the ill effects of Radio Frequency Radiation (RF), and on May 31, had filed a lawsuit against the implementation of 5G mobile technology in India. According to the petition, the plaintiffs sought direction from the “arrayed defendants” to certify that 5G technology is safe for humans and every type of living organism and to produce their studies regarding RF radiation in support. The lawsuit by Chawla said if the telecom industry’s plans for 5G comes to success, no person, animal, bird, insect, and plant on earth will be able to avoid exposure, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to levels of RF radiation that are 10 to 100 times greater than what exists today. It had urged the Delhi High Court to intervene immediately. The spokesperson further said that if not already conducted, efficient research should also be conducted without the participation of private interests.
The court issued contempt notices against the unknown person/persons who created disturbances in the proceedings and asked the Delhi Police to identify them. It also accused Chawla’s suit on alleged health hazards due to the 5G technology for being “stuffed with unnecessary, scandalous and frivolous averments”. The Court, in its order, stated: “It appears that the suit was filed for publicity. Plaintiff Juhi Chawla circulated the link of the hearing on social media which created the disruption thrice. The Delhi Police shall identify the persons and take action against those who created the disruptions.” Actor and environmentalist Juhi Chawla on Monday had approached the Delhi High Court against the setting up of 5G wireless networks in the country, raising concerns related to the radiation impact on citizens, animals, flora, and fauna.
Justice C Hari Shankar, before whom the case was presented, transferred the suit to another bench for hearing on June 2. “These 5G plans threaten to provoke serious, irreversible effects on humans and permanent damage to all of the Earth’s ecosystems”, she told the media. The suit was filed through Advocate Deepak Khosla. Speaking to IANS earlier, Chawla told them that there was a ‘misconception’ that their suit filed was against 5G technology. “We wish to clarify here and once again very clearly state, we are NOT against 5G technology. However, we seek from the Government and the governing authorities, to certify to us and, therefore, to the public at large, that 5G technology is safe to humankind, man, woman, adult, child, infant, animals, and every type of living organism, to flora, and to fauna.”
Advocate Khosla had also requested the court to consider a waiver of Section 80 for the lawsuit and said, ” 5G hasn’t been rolled out but trials are being done. This is not trials on pigs or rats or in empty Thar dessert or employees of the respondent. These are trials on the human population. Considering this, If the court may consider granting me Waiver of section 80 of CPC.” As a matter of fact, Section 80 of the Civil Procedure court states that any suit shall be instituted against the Government or a public officer at least after 2 months of sending them a notice in writing. Pollock Mulla wrote in ‘Code of Civil Procedure’ that section 80’s “underlying purpose is for the advancement of justice and security of public good by avoidance of unnecessary litigation.” The Centre was represented by Advocate S G Mehta who told the bench that this suit does not fit the gambit of Section 91 since there is no ‘public nuisance or wrongful act’.
The Bench clarified another condition: ‘likely to affect the public’, which was challenged by Mehta as a ‘qualification for the first two categories’. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal agreed and added, “Launching of 5G is a matter of policy of govt. The govt policy can only be set aside if it violates article 14 or other provisions of the constitution, and that can be done through a writ petition.” Khosla defended by saying that section 91 is only an ‘additional invocation’. Khosla told the Court that the case was based to call upon the precautionary principle. “The burden of proof is not on me. So If I am saying there’s smoke, it’s on respondents to show there’s no fire”.
Arguing this, the bench asked Khosla if the government had been approached prior to the filing of the suit and if there was an incident of denial of justice, to which Khosla denied. So the Bench of judges maintained that the suit doesn’t fall under the purview of section 34 of the Specific Reliefs Act, as a result. The Delhi High Court reserved its order that day in the suit filed by actor Chawla against the roll-out of 5G technology. As the news of the fine imposed by HC on Juhi Chawla broke on Indian social media, netizens came out with hilarious memes at bolting speeds to troll her.