PUBLIC INTEREST

LITIGATION
INTRODUCTION
 In Indian law, means litigation for the protection of public
interest. It is litigation introduced in a court of law, not by
the aggrieved party but by the court itself or by any other
private party.
 It is not necessary, for the exercise of the court's

jurisdiction, that the person who is the victim of the

violation of his or her right should personally approach the
court.
 Public Interest Litigation is the power given to the public by

courts through judicial activism.

 Such cases may occur when the victim does not have the

necessary resources to commence litigation or his freedom

to move court has been suppressed or encroached upon.
 The court can itself take cognizance of the matter and

proceed suo motu or cases can commence on the petition

of any public-spirited individual.
 PIL came into existence via:
 Law
 Judicial activism
• Judiciary, being the sentinel of constitutional statutory
rights of citizens has a special role to play in the
constitutional scheme. It can review legislation and
administrative actions or decisions on the anvil of
constitutional law.
•  For the enforcement of fundamental rights one has to
move the Supreme Court or the High Courts directly by
invoking Writ Jurisdiction of these courts.
• But the high cost and complicated procedure involved in
litigation, however, makes equal access to jurisdiction in
mere slogan in respect of millions of destitute and
underprivileged masses stricken by poverty, illiteracy and
ignorance
• The Supreme Court of India, pioneered the Public Interest
Litigation (PIL) thereby throwing upon the portals of
courts to the common man.
 What is the reason behind non-enforcement
of fundamental rights?
 high cost
 complicated procedure
 both
ORIGIN OF THE CONCEPT
 The term PIL originated in the United States in the mid-
1980s. Since the nineteenth century, various movements in
that country had contributed to public interest law, which
was part of the legal aid movement.
 The first legal aid office was established in New York in
1876. In the 1960s the PIL movement began to receive
financial support from the office of Economic Opportunity.
 This encouraged lawyers and public spirited persons to take
up cases of the under-privileged and fight against dangers
to environment and public health and exploitation of
consumers and the weaker sections.
 Till 1960s and seventies, the concept of litigation in India
was still in its rudimentary form and was seen as a private
pursuit for the vindication of private vested interests
 . Litigation in those days consisted mainly of some action
initiated and continued by certain individuals, usually,
addressing their own grievances/problems. 
 The public spirited persons were motivated to
take case:
 Environmental issues
 Public health
 Both
 Thus, the initiation and continuance of litigation was the
prerogative of the injured person or the aggrieved party.
Even this was greatly limited by the resources available
with those individuals.
 There were very little organized efforts or attempts to
take up wider issues that affected classes of consumers
or the general public at large.
 However, these entire scenario changed during Eighties
with the Supreme Court of India led the concept of Public
Interest Litigation (PIL).
 The Supreme Court of India gave all individuals in the
country and the newly formed consumer groups or social
action groups, an easier access to the law and introduced
in their work a broad public interest perspective.
 Which authority came up with the concept of
PIL:
 Lower court
 Supreme court
 Legislature
 =
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• The present struggle for civil rights movement in India
has its antecedents during the colonial rule but it became
intense and full-fledged when national emergency was
imposed by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of
India, during 1975-77.
• During this period the contemporary moral standards of
India's democratic norms stood as particularly amoral due
to the increasing weakness in the professional eff!ciency
of the State apparatus -the bureaucracy, political parties,
the judiciary and the media.
• As a result, some of the important events such as the
demand for restoration of civil and democratic rights, the
demand for regional autonomy, restructuring of the State
apparatus and the emergence of various civil and
democratic rights organisation provided the institutional
base for this movement.
 Which event acted as the catalyst for PIL?
 Kargil war
 Emergency by Mrs. Indira Gandhi
• The constitutional remedies against the violation of
fundamental rights of citizens, as sharply manifested
during the national emergency of 1975-77 found to be
inadequate
• The emergence of new political leaders, new regional
parties, sub-nationalist assertions, the evolution of a
vibrant print media, emergence of civil rights groups "like
1. Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR, Delhi),
Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights
(Bombay),
2. Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committees (Hyderabad)
or
3. Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights
(Punjab)"led to more passionate and pro-people
approach to defend the democratic rights amidst the
continuing problems of poverty, illiteracy, injustice and
exploitation.
 PIL led to the grwoth of :
 vibrant print media
 emergence of civil rights groups
 both
• With the erosion of consensual model of governance, new
thoughts were streamlined to give new directions of
social change
• The agencies of state could no more be understood as
branches of one system of State as there was sharp rift
between the different organs - executive, legislature and
judiciary, on basic issues
• These had their impact in the concern for citizens rights
within the mainstream of political and intellectual
discourse in the country
• The emergence of new activist judges who were sensitive
to the grievances of the oppressed and unprivileged,
along with new civil rights groups followed as
consequence.
• The most common grievance of the unprivileged was to
get justice at cheaper price on the judicial front, "various
committees
• Prior to 1980s, only the aggrieved party could personally
knock the doors of justice and seek remedy for his
grievance and any other person who was not personally
affected could not knock the doors of justice as a proxy
for the victim or the aggrieved party.
• In other words, only the affected parties had the locus
standi (standing required in law) to file a case and
continue the litigation and the non affected persons had
no locus standi to do so.
• And as a result, there was hardly any link between the
rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Indian Union and
the laws made by the legislature on the one hand and the
vast majority of illiterate citizens on the other
• The traditional view in regard to locus standi in Writ
jurisdiction has been that only such persons who: a) Has
suffered a legal injury by reason of violation of his legal
right or legally protected interest; or b) Is likely to suffer a
legal injury by reason of violation of his legal right or
•  Thus before a person acquired locus standi he had to
have a personal or individual right which was violated or
threatened to be violated.
• He should have been a person aggrieved in the sense
that he had suffered or was likely to suffer from
prejudice, pecuniary or otherwise.
• However, all these scenario gradually changed when the
post emergency Supreme Court tackled the problem of
access to justice by people through radical changes and
alterations made in the requirements of locus standi and
of party aggrieved. 
• The splendid efforts of Justice P N Bhagwati and Justice V
R Krishna Iyer were instrumental of this juristic revolution
of eighties to convert the Apex Court of India into a
Supreme Court for all Indians.
• Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer and P. N. Bhagwati recognised
the possibility of providing access to justice to the poor
and the exploited people by relaxing the rules of
 PIL …… rule of locus standi:
 Follows
 Do not follow
• The first reported case of PIL in 1979 focused on the
inhuman conditions of prisons and under trial prisoners.
• In Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar, the PIL was filed
by an advocate on the basis of the news item published in
the Indian Express, highlighting the plight of thousands
of under trial prisoners languishing in various jails in
Bihar.
• These proceeding led to the release of more than 40,000
under trial prisoners. Right to speedy justice emerged as
a basic fundamental right which had been denied to these
prisoners. The same set pattern was adopted in
subsequent cases.
• A new era of the PIL movement was heralded by Justice
P.N. Bhagawati in the case of S.P. Gupta v. Union of India.
In this case it was held that any member of the public or
social action group acting bonafide can invoke the Writ
Jurisdiction of the High Courts or the Supreme Court
seeking redressal against violation of a legal or
constitutional rights of persons who due to social or
economic or any other disability cannot approach the Court
• By this judgment PIL became a potent weapon for the
enforcement of public duties where executed in action or
misdeed resulted in public injury. And as a result any
citizen of India or any consumer groups or social action
groups can now approach the apex court of the country
seeking legal remedies in all cases where the interests of
general public or a section of public are at stake.
• In 1981 the case of Anil Yadav v. State of Bihar, exposed
the brutalities of the Police. News paper report revealed
that about 33 suspected criminals were blinded by the
police in Bihar by putting the acid into their eyes.
• Through interim orders Supreme Court directed the State
government to bring the blinded men to Delhi for medical
treatment
• It also ordered speedy prosecution of the guilty
policemen.
 Hussainara khatoon’s case relates to :
 Condition of sex victim
 Under trial prisoners
• The court also read right to free legal aid as a
fundamental right of every accused. Anil Yadav signalled
the growth of social activism and investigative litigation.
• PUDR vs . . Delhi Govt. in' Asiad Labour Case ( 1982).
During the construction-boom in Delhi before the Asian
Games in 1982, migrant labourers from various parts of
the country were brought to Delhi by the Private
Contractors and did not pay their basic wages and made
to live them in the streets of Delhi, PUDR filed a petition
concerning the statutory wages of these migrant
labourers in the apex court and subsequently the court
made the administration responsible to enforce the
minimum wages regulation even in cases of labour
employment by private contractors.
• V.R. Krishna lyer, J. and P.N. Bhagwati, J. of the Supreme
Court not only broadened the rules of locus standi from
"traditional individualism" to community orientation of
public interest litigation but also relaxed the formalities
MEANING OF PIL
 in simple words, means, litigation filed in a court of law,
for the protection of Public Interest, such as pollution,
Terrorism, Road safety, constructional hazards etc.
 Public interest litigation is not defined in any statute or

in any act. It has been interpreted by judges to consider

the intent of public at large. Although, the main and
only focus of such litigation is only Public Interest there
are various areas where a Public interest litigation can
be filed. For e.g.
1. Violation of basic human rights of the poor
2. Content or conduct of government police
3. Compel municipal authorities to perform a public duty.

4. Violation of religious rights or other basic fundamental

rights
 Has any statute in India defined the term PIL?
 In Black's law Dictionary (Sixth Edition), Public
Interest is defined as follows:
Public Interest. –
 Something in which the public, the community at

large has something pecuniary interest, or some

interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are
affected.
 It does not mean anything so narrow as mere

curiosity, or as the interest of the particular

localities, which may be affected by the matters in
question.
 Interest shared by the citizens generally in affair of

local, State or national government...

 The broad contours of PIL in India may be summarised
thus :
 (a) It would comprehend any legal wrong or injury or
illegal burden, caused or threated. (It would not
necessarily be confined to the violation of fundamental
rights);
 (b) The subject may be either a person or a determinate
class of person~ who by reason of poverty, helplessness
or disability or socially or economically disadvantageous
position can not themselves claim relief before the
courts;
 c) Any member of the public can maintain an application
for appropriate direction etc. on behalf of such a person
or class of persons;
 (d) The High Court can be moved for the interaction of
any right; the Supreme Court can be moved for the
violation of fundamental rights only;
 The court can issue any direction, order or writ for the redressal of
grievances (This may include directions for affirmative action and
continuous monitoring); and
 (f) The court could be moved by a member of the public even by
addressing a letter which the court could convert into a writ petition.
 Procedures To File A Pil In The Court
Any citizen of India can approach the court for public case
(upon the interest of public) by filing a petition:
• Under Supreme Court Article 32 of the constitution
• Under High Court under Article 226 of the constitution
• Under Court of Magistrate under Section 133 CRPC
 At present, a court can treat a letter as a writ petition and

take action upon it. In such cases, the court has to be

satisfied that the writ petition compiles the following;
1. Where the letter is addressed by the aggrieved person
2. A public-spirited individual
3. A social action group for the enforcement of legal or
constitutional rights to any person who, upon poverty or
disability, are not able to approach the court for redress.
 Can a letter be considered as PIL?
 Categories Involved In Filing A PIL
The guidelines provide that ordinarily letter/petitions
falling under one of the following 10 categories will be
entertained as PIL:
1. Bonded labor matters
2. Neglected children
3. Non-payment of minimum wages
4. Petitions from jails complaining of harassment, death
in jail, speedy trial as a fundamental right, etc.
5. Petitions against police for refusing to register a case,
harassment of bride, bride-burning, rape, murder,
kidnapping, etc.
6. Petitions against atrocities on women, in particular
harassment of bribe, bribe-burning, rape, murder,
kidnapping, etc.
7. Petitions complaining harassment or torcher of persons
belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribes
8. Petitions pertaining to environmental
SHORTCOMINGS OF PUBLIC INTEREST
LITIGATION
 (i) Critics argue that the liberal "rule of locus standi
which has given birth to the concept of PIL will
encourage vexatious litigants to file unmeritorious
charges in a large number, thus allowing them to
abuse the process of the court, and also cause
further delay in the administration of Justice.
 (ii) Another criticism hurled against PIL is that it

can lead to a confrontation between the judiciary

on one hand, and executive and the legislature,
ori .the other. The effect of such confrontation may
undermine the prestige :of judiciary and will impair
its ability to discharge its traditional function.
 The concept of PIL is criticised because:
 It can cause clash b/w judiciary and executive
 Lead to vexatiatious litgation
 Both
 (iii) the court lacks the expertise to deal with some
specific question of complex nature or for ascertaining
certain facts, or making legal investigations.
 Many people started handling PIL as tool for
harassment because frivolous cases can be filed
without heavy court fee as compared to private
litigations
 Due to the flexibility of character of the PIL, the
opposite party gets an opportunity to ascertain the
precise allegation and respond to specific issues
 The judiciary has been criticized due to the
overstepping of its jurisdiction and that it is unable to
implement its order effectively
 PIL as being misused in many ways, by the public
agitating for private grievances in the grab of public
interest by seeking publicity rather than supporting
the public cause.
 Justice Krishna Iyer in the case of Fertilizer
corporation Kamagar union Vs Union of India has
enumerated the following principles on Public
Interest Litigation such as;
 The exercise of State power to eradicate corruption

may result in unrelated interference’s of individuals

right
 Social justice want’s liberal judicial review

administrative action
 Restrictive rules of standing are an antithesis to an

effective system of administration

 Activism is essential for participative public justice.
LANDMARK CASES
 Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of
Bihar
 This case was stated to be a landmark case in India

in the 1980s where this case brought into light the

plight of the undertrial accused. This was a series
of the case filed by multiple prisoners and have
briefly spoken about the undertrial prisoners being
in the prison for a period which is more than what
they will get if they have got convicted also.
 This case helped to create a precedent over the

speedy trial and equitable justice for the undertrial

prisoners. This one has the special place in the list.
 Vishaka vs the State of Rajasthan
 This case was initiated by an advocate through Public

interest litigation (PIL). This case is the sad story of

Bhanwari who was a victim of rape, which occurred to her
after she fought against child marriage. Her whole family
was boycotted from the village. The criminal case against
the accused did not help her to meet the ends of justice.
One of the lawyers who were present at the criminal trial of
this case filed a PIL in order to help the victim.
 Javed vs the State of Haryana
 In this case, the case was filed by the aggrieved party who

were unable to contest in the election because of a statute

which made any person who has more than 2 children
cannot contest in certain posts of the panchayat. This so-
called two-child norm was made to give attention to the
family planning scheme.
 This court spoke about the overlapping provisions of the

human right and the problem of population

 Javed vs state of haryana is PIL relating:
 Panchayat elections
 Rape victims
 M.C. Mehta vs UOI:
 This case was against those who were polluting the

Ganga river.
 The case was filed by the notable environmental

attorney M.C.Mehta where he fought against

numerous industries and cities which mixed the
Ganges with effluents and toxic waste.
 This case made the court to pass numerous orders

against the industries to set up a sewage treatment

plant. The cities and towns were also made to
follow strict guidelines. Many numbers of
industries were made to relocate.
 Thus, this case is considered to be one of the

important cases in the history of PILs.

 Parmanand Katara vs UOI
 This case makes it to the list of landmark cases
because of the number of lives that have been
saved after the PIL was made.
 The case dealt with hospitals which were reluctant
to attend accident and legal cases.
 The spark was created in the mind of Parmanand
after he came to know about the story of a
scooterist who met with an accident and was
unable to get treatment in the nearby hospitals.
 This case made sure that the ultimate goal of the
hospital should be saving a life, and not escaping
from troubles.
 The court gave complete freedom on hospitals to
attend an emergency case that comes to them
without worrying about legal troubles.
 S.P.Gupta vs UOI:
 In this case, it was held that a lawyer too has a

locus standi to file a writ for the Public Interest

Litigation.
 The case was a landmark case in the sense that the

constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India,

has told that the very interpretation of locus standi
have been changed and thus the locus standi over
the filing of PIL by lawyers should be accepted.
 This opened up a plethora of PIL petitions by the

advocates.
 SP gupta case has define the term:
 PIL
 Locus standi
 Both
 https://
www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/public-i
nterest-litigation
 https://www.toppr.com/guides/legal-aptitude/juri
sprudence/public-interest-litigation
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 http://
www.legalservicesindia.com/article/2528/A-Study
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 http://
www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l273-Public-Int
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