Let celebrity client do some good: Delhi HC proposes to cut Juhi Chawla's 5G fine

In June last year, single bench judge JR Midha dismissed the lawsuit filed by Juhi Chawla and two others against rolling out 5G networks in India, and imposed a cost of ₹20 lakh on them, noting the move was only to gain publicity.

The Delhi high court on Tuesday proposed to cut down a fine worth ₹20 lakh imposed on Bollywood actor Juhi Chawla and two other petitioners to ₹2 lakh in connection with their lawsuit against setting up of 5G networks in India.

Bollywood actor Juhi Chawla is one of the three petitioners in the ongoing 5G case, the plea on which was originally moved in May last year.

A division of the court issued a notice to the member secretary of the Delhi State Legal Service Authority (DSLSA) in the matter. The DSLSA had recently moved the court seeking payment of the amount that was imposed on the plaintiffs on June 4 last year.

The bench, comprising Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh, said they cannot propose to “waive off the costs” but can reduce it to ₹2 lakh. However, they placed a condition for the same. “Since your client is a celebrity, we would want her to do some good for society,” the bench said.

The court said a programme can be conducted in which the DSLSA can contact the actor for featuring in it and “promoting the cause (5G matter).”

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, Chawla's counsel, later informed the bench that his client would be honoured to participate in such a programme and help the DSLSA for such a good cause. The matter was posted for further hearing for Thursday (January 27).

Chawla and the two other petitioners had in December last year moved the high court with an appeal, challenging the dismissal of their lawsuit against the rolling out of 5G networks. They called the dismissal bad in law, citing that a suit can only be rejected once it has been permitted to be registered as a suit by the court. The petitioners also challenged the single-bench judge's earlier ruling that said the 5G lawsuit was filed only to gain publicity.

Notably, in June last year, a single bench of Justice JR Midha dismissed the lawsuit and imposed ₹20 lakh cost on the petitioners, noting that they abused the process of law. It also stated that Chawla circulated the link of the hearing on social media, which led to disruption in court proceedings thrice during the particular day.

The plea against 5G networks in India was moved in May last year. The Bollywood actor had virtually joined the court proceedings that took place during the second wave of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

In the plea, the petitioners sought directions to certify that 5G technology is safe for humans and all forms of living organisms and also asked for efficient research to be conducted on the issue, if not already done.

After the plea was dismissed by the single-bench judge, Chawla had released a video clarifying that she is not against 5G technology, but was only seeking the government's stand on the same being safe.

(With PTI inputs)