Delhi court raps man for seeking frivolous adjournments

A Delhi Court has taken exception to the conduct of a social worker taking several adjournments in a challan matter and dismissed his plea for showing scant regard to the process of law despite being well versed in it.

"Despite being a social worker and a law-abiding citizen, it seems that the petitioner himself has no respect for the courts of law as his conduct depicts otherwise," additional sessions Judge (ASJ) Madhu Jain said.

The court was hearing a revision petition of Naved Yar Khan, who sought re-examination of correctness of a summon order passed against him by the magistrate in challan issued by the MCD for violation of its construction regulations in 2004.

"Khan himself is making a mockery of law since perusal of trial court record shows that in the whole proceedings conducted there in 2005, he only appeared once or twice and that too for taking adjournment," the court said.

The ASJ said omission of writing "Delhi Municipal Corporation Act" on the copy of summon served to Khan has been done inadvertently by the court staff due to rush of work and taking advantage of which he had filed the present petition.

"Only Delhi Municipal Corporation Act has not been mentioned for which no presumption can be raised against the trial court that it is not working properly," the court said. The petitioner pleaded not guilty to the charges against him but, thereafter, never appeared in the court to give answer to the charges against him or to contest the challan, the ASJ said.

"From his own conduct, now the petitioner is stopped from taking the plea that he is not aware under what provisions or under what law he has been summoned by the trial court," the court said while dismissing the revision petition.

Earlier, Khan raised question over the summon served by the magistrate as there was no mention of law to which the section belonged, no offence was described and how he had violated it.