5G roll out: Delhi HC grants week to Juhi Chawla to deposit Rs 20 lakh in costs
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted a week to Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla and two others to deposit Rs 20 lakh in costs imposed on them for abusing the process of law by way of their lawsuit challenging 5G wireless network technology.
The court is shocked at the conduct of the plaintiffs, Justice J R Midha said as he observed that Chawla and others were not even willing to gracefully deposit the costs .
The judge was hearing three applications moved by the actor for refund of court fees, waiver of costs and replacing the word dismissed in the judgement with rejected .
The court's reaction came after Chawla's counsel, Senior Advocate Meet Malhotra's, after withdrawing the application for waiver of costs, said that costs would either be deposited in a week or ten days, or legal remedies against the same would be taken.
On one hand you move frivolous application and on the other hand, you withdraw the application and plaintiffs are not even willing to gracefully deposit the costs, the court said.
The court stated that it, in fact, took a lenient view when it imposed costs of Rs 20 lakh on Chawla and others and did not initiate contempt proceedings.
I was shocked... This court took a lenient view and did not issue contempt when case was made out... I was totally inclined. You say court had no power to impose costs (but) court has the power to issue contempt, the court said as it took strong exception to the application.
Malhotra clarified that the stand was not that the costs would not be paid, and did not even pressing the application for its waiver.
It is unintended... Today also, this is my instruction that nobody said that they wouldn't. I saw what happened (in the judgement). I fully understand, he said.
The court recorded Malhotra's statement that he sought a weeks' time to deposit costs and that recourse may be taken to avail legal remedies.
The application for refund of court fees was also withdrawn by Malhotra.
Advocate Deepak Khosla, appearing for Chawla and others, informed that the court fee had already been paid.
I'm yet to see a person in my judicial career a person who is not willing to pay court fees, the judge remarked as the application was dismissed as withdrawn.
Let bygones be bygones, Malhotra urged the court.
The court ordered that the third application seeking rejection of plaint would be placed before Justice Sanjeev Narula after the deposit of court fees.
Malhotra argued that plaint, which never went up to the level of suit , could only be rejected or returned in terms of the Civil Procedure Code, and not dismissed.
Further hearing in the case will take place on July 12.
In June, the high court had dismissed the lawsuit by Chawla and other others against the setting up of 5G wireless networks in the country and slapped a cost of Rs 20 lakh.
The court had described the plea as "defective", "abuse of process of law" and filed for "gaining publicity".
Justice Midha said the plaint in which questions have been raised about health hazards due to the 5G technology was "not maintainable" and was "stuffed with unnecessary scandalous, frivolous and vexatious averments" which are liable to be struck down.
The court said the suit filed by actress-environmentalist and others was to gain publicity which was clear as Chawla circulated the video conferencing link of the hearing on her social media account which resulted in the repeated disruptions thrice by unknown miscreants who continued disruptions despite repeated warnings.
The suit sought a direction to the authorities to certify to the public at large that how 5G technology is safe to humans, animals and every type of living organism, flora and fauna.
It said that if the telecom industry's plans for 5G came to fruition, 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 10x to 100x times greater than what exists today.
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Over 17,000 people went missing in Delhi in 2024: NCRB
New Delhi (PTI): A total of 23,058 people, comprising 9,482 men and 13,576 women, were reported missing in Delhi in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Of the total, 5,491 were children below the age of 18 — 1,571 boys, 3,920 girls.
The city recorded 17,567 fresh adult missing persons cases in 2024, comprising 7,911 men and 9,656 women.
According to the NCRB data, released on Wednesday, 14,637 men, 18,238 women and six transgender persons were still missing from previous years.
At the latest count, in 2024, Delhi had a total of 55,939 missing persons cases — 24,119 men, 31,814 women and six transgender persons.
In 2024, police traced or collected 28,392 missing persons, including 12,182 men, 16,208 women and two transgender persons.
Only half of the men and half of the women who went missing could be traced.
A total of 27,547 missing persons – 11,937 men, 15,606 women, four transgender persons — were yet to be untraced by the end of the year, the data showed.
The data also revealed that 5,352 children from previous years remained untraced at the beginning of 2024.
The number of still missing boys was 1,621, and the number of missing girls was 3,729. Two transgender children were yet to be found.
After adding the pending cases from previous years, the total number of missing children cases handled in 2024 rose to 10,843.
The police traced or recovered 6,762 missing children — 2,030 boys, 4,732 girls.
The recovery rate stood at 63.6 per cent for boys and 61.9 per cent for girls, while no transgender child was traced.
By the end of 2024, a total of 4,081 children remained untraced, 1,162 of them boys, 2,917 girls, and two transgender children.
