‘Misconceived, filed with ulterior motive’: HC junks plea seeking to restrain UP CM from using ‘Yogi’ as title, imposes Rs 1 lakh cost

The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a plea seeking directions from the court to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister to disclose his full name and restrain him from the use of ‘Yogi’ title in all official communication. 

Terming the petition as misconceived and filed with ulterior motives, the High Court dismissed the plea and also imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner. “We find this petition to be totally misconceived, filed with ulterior motive by a political person, without disclosing his complete credentials and concealing material facts from the Court. Hence, the same is dismissed,” a bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Piyush Agrawal said, according to Bar and Bench.

In his plea, the petitioner cited documents in a bid to show the use of different names at different places by the chief minister. He further stated that he did not receive the information he sought through an RTI application regarding the CM’s name. 

However, the state argued that the petitioner, besides impleading the chief minister as a private person which makes the writ petition unmaintainable, had also failed to disclose his credentials as required under the High Court Rules. The petitioner responded to the submission, stating that he was illiterate and thus unaware of the High Court rules. 

However, the Bench concluded that the petition was misconceived and filed with ulterior motives. “He being a political person, deliberately chose to conceal his identity while filing the writ petition, apparently with some ulterior motive or cheap publicity,” the bench observed. The court also found attempts by the petitioner to mislead the court by giving an address from Delhi but stating that he belonged to Uttar Pradesh. 

The bench further observed that the petitioner’s claim that he had been certified to be an illiterate person by the Election Commission of India stands belied since he was arguing his case in English, was carrying a copy of the Constitution of India, and could read it very well.