Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court inaugurated a new high-speed scanner for e-filing and a defibrillator machine for the bench's hospital on Friday. The machines were inaugurated by Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Arun Pednekar, along with other judges of the High Court.
The scanner will be used by lawyers to file documents electronically, while the defibrillator machine will be used on patients who suffer sudden cardiac arrest.
The machines were purchased using funds that were recovered from a movie theater that had overcharged entertainment tax. The theater had printed Rs 100 tickets as Rs 80 and Rs 20, and the government had recovered Rs 70 lakhs from the theater.
The theater appealed to the Collector and Divisional Commissioner, to find the audience to return the amount. But they were untraceable. The theater then appealed to the High Court, which ruled in favor of the government. According to a judgment of the Supreme Court, the government cannot take back such an excess amount. The theater has to return the amount to the audience from whom it was collected. But, it is not easy to find them to return the amount to the audience. Justice Arun Pednekar then suggested giving the amount to government hospitals or cancer hospital.
The High Court then decided to use the recovered funds to purchase the scanner and defibrillator machine. President of the lawyers association Adv Narasimha L Jadhav, member bar council of Maharashtra and Goa Adv Amol Sawant, chief public prosecutor Amarjit Singh Girase, Vice president of the Bar Association Adv Ramdas Bhosle, Adv Sabahat Qazi and other lawyers were present