Gujarat High Court imposes ₹20 lakh fine on man for filing PIL to extort Surat businessmen

The Gujarat High Court has recently slapped a ₹20 lakh fine on Ajay Rameshbhai Trivedi for filing a public interest litigation (PIL) with the alleged intent to extort money from Surat businesses. 

Trivedi, who had filed the PIL in 2021 seeking the demolition of certain properties and a probe into an alleged construction scam, was caught in a police sting operation while attempting to blackmail businessmen for ₹45 lakh.

The court, led by Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi, observed that the PIL was filed with ulterior motives, and that Trivedi had used the fear of legal violations to extort money from his targets.

The judges noted that unscrupulous individuals cannot be allowed to misuse the court’s process for personal gain. Consequently, the court ordered that no future PILs by Trivedi would be entertained and that pending cases would be expedited.

This ruling follows an FIR filed against Trivedi, with the court rejecting his argument that the allegations against him were unproven.

Trivedi claimed to be a whistleblower and a Right to Information (RTI) activist who exposed a lot of corruption cases in Gujarat.

Senior advocates R Sanjanwala and Adit R Sanjanwala represented the two respondents who had raised the allegations.