Juhi Chawla fails to pay Rs. 20 lakh fine, court "shocked"

Juhi Chawla and two other people who were fined for abusing the process of law have failed to pay the fine. Chawla and two others were fined Rs 20 lakh for "wasting judicial time". However, none of the plaintiffs deposited the money.

The Delhi High Court has now granted them one more week's time to deposit the fine amount, failing which, they might be issued a contempt notice.

"The court took a lenient view (then) and did not issue contempt notice against Juhi Chawla; otherwise the case was made out," Justice JR Midha said. Senior Advocate Meet Malhotra, who is representing Juhi Chawla, and the others would deposit the money within a week or take legal remedies. The plaintiffs are not withdrawing their application.

Justice Midha said the court was shocked at the conduct of the plaintiffs. "I have never seen in my judicial career a plaintiff who doesn't want to pay the court fee. I was today inclined to issue contempt. You say the court has no power to impose the costs but the court has the power to issue contempt," he said.

High Court's order

While dismissing Juhi Chawla's plea, Justice Midha had said, "...plaintiffs have filed the suit to gain publicity which is clear from the fact that plaintiff no 1 (Chawla) circulated the video conferencing link of this court on her social media accounts, which resulted in repeated disruptions of court proceedings."

Juhi Chawla's U-turn

Juhi Chawla had then shared a video saying she was in favour of 5G. "There has been so much noise in the past few days that I couldn't even hear myself. I feel like a very important message got lost in the noise. That is, we are not against 5G. In fact, we are welcoming of it. All we're asking is that the authorities certify it safe. We are just asking them to publish their studies in the public domain so our fears are allayed," Chawla had said.