The Jharkhand high court on Wednesday dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) against Indian ODI cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni challenging the construction of a swimming pool in his house and fined petitioner Krishna Chandra Sircar Rs 1 lakh for moving the petition based solely on media reports.
The petitioner and others were also hauled up for a sharp practice that, the judges said, amounted to contempt of court.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Muthuswamy Karpagyavinayagam and Justice DGR Patnaik got upset after Dhoni's lawyer produced a letter written by one of the signatories to the PIL, B P Sinha, asking the Indian skipper not to construct the swimming pool in his house even if the high court gave him the permission to do so.
The judges said this amounted to contempt of court. "Knowing that the matter was sub judice, how could anyone write such a letter to Dhoni?" the court wondered. For the gaffe, Sircar will be poorer by Rs 1 lakh. While Sircar's counsel apologised to the court on behalf of Sinha, the judges nonetheless took a dim view of the transgression.
The judges were bemused when they learnt that all that Sircar had to show as proof of a swimming pool being built by Dhoni were a few newspaper clippings.
Interestingly, in the course of hearing the matter, the court on learning that the area where Dhoni's house is being built faces water shortage, directed the Jharkhand government to install between 25 to 50 hand pumps.
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