Delhi HC to hear in January Juhi Chawla’s appeal against dismissal of lawsuit against 5G

PTI, Dec 23, 2021, 12:48 PM IST

The Delhi High Court on Thursday listed for hearing on January 25 actor Juhi Chawla’s appeal against an order dismissing her lawsuit against the 5G rollout, saying there was no grave urgency in the matter. A bench headed by Justice Vipin Sanghi stated that there were several other cases listed for hearing before it and the appeal concerned an order that was passed six months ago.

“Order is of June. You come now. Six months have gone,” remarked the bench also comprising Justice Jasmeet Singh after the case was initially listed for hearing in February. Senior counsel Salman Khurshid, appearing for Chawla, said that the present case was an “unfortunate” one and urged the court to advance the date of hearing. In June, a single judge had described the lawsuit by Chawla and two others against the 5G rollout as ”defective”, ”abuse of process of law” and filed for ”gaining publicity” while dismissing it with costs of Rs 20 lakh.

In her appeal before the division bench of the high court, the actor and other appellants have contended that the single judge dismissed the plea and imposed costs without any jurisdiction and contrary to the settled law. It is claimed that a plaint can be dismissed only after it has been allowed to be registered as a suit.

The appellants have further reiterated their concerns surrounding the harmful impact of 5G technology and submitted, “Every day that the 5G trials are allowed to continue constitutes a distinct and imminent danger to the health of the people who reside in the vicinity of the area where the trials are being conducted.” In the lawsuit, the appellants had claimed that if the telecom industry’s plans for 5G come 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”.

It had sought a direction to the authorities to certify to the public at large how 5G technology is safe to humans, animals and every type of living organism, flora and fauna. While dismissing the lawsuit, Justice JR Midha had 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 single judge had said the suit filed by the actor-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 repeated disruptions by unknown persons.