India News | HC Declines Plea for Pan-India Guidelines to Protect Women from Violence, Calls It Publicity Stunt

New Delhi, Jun 1 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Monday declined to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Centre to formulate pan-India guidelines to protect women against all kind of violence and discrimination during COVID-19 pandemic, saying it has been filed "for the purpose of news bites".

A bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon cautioned the lawyers, who filed the petition, not to "misuse the PIL route in future" and said this time it was allowing them to withdraw the petition without imposing any costs.

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It also observed that "for the purposes of news bites, reliefs are claimed of which no basis even is known to the petitioners in spite of being advocates". 

The high court in its order noted that "the petitioners are unable to answer how or under which law this court can issue 'pan-India comprehensive guidelines' and how the same would be binding on other states having their own High Courts.

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"They are even unable to state whether the subject qua which the guidelines are sought, falls in the Legislative List of the Union of India or the States."

The bench said,"This petition filed as a PIL is yet another instance of filing PILs on the basis of newspaper reports and material on the internet and without any study of law."

Sensing the mood of the bench, the petitioners withdrew their plea.

"The petition is dismissed as withdrawn," the bench said and directed the petitioners to be careful in future and not file PILs without studying the law.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)