Delhi HC bench nixes review plea against order dismissing PIL on CJI's appointment

New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) A Delhi High court bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan, on Monday, dismissed a review petition filed against an order quashing a PIL challenging the appointment of Justice Dhananjaya Yashwant Chandrachud as the 50th Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Dealing with Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari's plea, the bench dismissed it as no ground was made out to review the order dated November 11, 2022, when his PIL was set aside by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma-led bench.

The bench said that the present review petition appears to be an appeal disguised as review and the petitioner (Tiwari) has not been able to point any error.

"This does not fall under review. Review is only when there is an error. Error has not been pointed out either in your petition or your arguments," the bench said while dismissing the petition.

Earlier, the HC through the impugned order had imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner.

On January 13, CJ-led bench recused itself from the matter as the impugned order dismissing the PIL has also been passed by the same bench.

Petitioner's allegations being defamatory, the counsel for Centre had submitted before the court that a strict action should be taken against Tiwari.

A similar argument was previously rejected by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it was ill-conceived and without merit.

The petitioner's lawyer had claimed that Justice Chandrachud does not deem fit to take an oath since his son is appearing in a matter before the Bombay High Court and then him passing an order in the same case.

The plea to delay Justice Chandrachud's taking the oath of office as India's next Chief Justice was dismissed by the bench of the then CJI U.U. Lalit after it was determined that the claims of conflict of interest against him lacked validity.

Succeeding CJI Lalit, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud was administered oath as the 50th Chief Justice on November 9, 2022.

CJI Chandrachud will serve till November 10, 2024.

Born on November 11, 1959, Justice Chandrachud was appointed as the Supreme Court judge on May 13, 2016. Before that, he had served as the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court from October31, 2013 until his appointment to the Supreme Court.