Should the PIL jurisdiction be reconsidered?, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which began in the 1970s, aimed to broaden access to justice for the poor by relaxing standing rules and expanding judicial notice.
• Concerns have arisen regarding the misuse of PIL jurisdiction, with the Union government urging the Supreme Court to reconsider the framework.
• There have been instances of litigants rushing to court with poorly drafted petitions, often with the intention of precluding genuine litigants from approaching the court, known as "ambush PILs".

Detailed Insights:

• The evolution of PIL can be traced to Supreme Court decisions of the late 1970s, which marked a departure from the traditional doctrine of locus standi, permitting representative standing.
• The structural barriers that justified the relaxation of locus standi decades ago remain largely intact, and courts continue to be inaccessible to the poor and marginalised.
• Courts have consciously refrained from encroaching upon the domains reserved for the executive or the legislature, reflecting the limits to what the courts can do.
• The Supreme Court Rules, 2013, require that a writ petition contain a specific pleading identifying the fundamental rights alleged to have been violated.
• There are clear violations of several important directives issued by the Supreme Court in PILs, often without any recourse to contempt proceedings.
• In dealing with complex cases, courts have, at times, expanded the role of the amicus to an extent that risks diluting basic procedural safeguards.
• One requirement for entertaining a PIL should be that it is well-researched and confined to challenging enacted laws or executive action or inaction, rather than inviting the court to make policy choices.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Public Interest Litigation (PIL): Legal action initiated in a court of law for the enforcement of public interest or general welfare where the public or a class of the community has some interest by which their legal rights are affected.
• Locus Standi: The right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court.
• Amicus Curiae: An impartial advisor, often voluntary, to a court of law in a particular case.

PIL