India, May 24 -- The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an inquiry into the breach of protocol for Justice BR Gavai on his first visit as Chief Justice of India to his home state Maharashtra on May 18.

A bench led by Justice BR Gavai, deprecated the practice of filing such a plea, imposing a cost of Rs.7,000 on the petitioner and observed that it was nothing but a "publicity interest litigation" filed in order to gain "cheap publicity".

The plea was filed seeking directions to the Union of India and the state of Maharashtra to conduct a preliminary inquiry over the misconduct on the part of senior state officials who remained absent while the CJI visited his native state.

On May 18, during the ...