# Common Cause (India)

Common Cause is a non-governmental organisation based in New Delhi, India, that works on probity in public life and governance reforms. Common Cause focuses on defending and fighting for the citizens’ rights. It takes up public causes through advocacy, research and public interest litigation.
It was founded in 1980 by H D Shourie. It has been headed by Vipul Mudgal since 2015.

## History and impact

Common Cause founded in 1980 by H D Shourie, started functioning with the first writ petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of 1500 retired civil servants regarding the issues and hardships faced by them. The Supreme Court heard this writ petition, which successfully contested the upward modification of pensions for only those government employees who resigned after 1 April 1979. Their suit was granted by the Supreme Court, which also ordered the government to pay the actual pension to all retired employees.
The next major success came in 1996 when the detailed inquiry ordered in 1996 by the Supreme Court into the "misuse" of the official position by then petroleum minister Satish Sharma in allotments of petrol pumps and dealership of LPG happened after the Common Cause intervention.

### Living Will: Common Cause v Union of India

In 2005, to legalise the practice of executing "living wills," which function as advance directives for refusing life-prolonging medical procedures in the event of the testator's incapacitation, Common Cause filed a petition on living wills with the Supreme Court. This petition aimed to enact legislation along the lines of the Patient Autonomy and Self-determination Act of the US.
In February 2014 the Supreme Court of India's three-judge bench stated while hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Common Cause, that the previous ruling in the Aruna Shanbaug case was incorrectly interpreted from the Constitution Bench's ruling in Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab. The court also found that the ruling was internally inconsistent as, despite holding that euthanasia can only be authorised by a legislative act, it went on to judicially create parameters for the practice. The court wrote that the matter should be resolved by a bigger Constitution Bench.

#### Passive euthanasia allowed

The major threshold was achieved in this case on 9 March 2018, when a five-judge panel concluded that "living wills," or advance medical directives, permit consenting patients to be passively euthanised if they have a terminal illness or are in a vegetative state.

### Electoral Bonds 2024 : PIL in Supreme Court

Common Cause is one of the petitioners who submitted a petition to the Supreme Court on 24 April in order to establish a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate each instance of quid pro quo, corruption, and kickbacks that was disclosed through the disclosure of electoral bond details. Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl D'Souza, asserted that "certain investigative agencies, including the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, and Income Tax Department, appear to have become complicit in corruption."
Based on reports and extensive data mining conducted by The Hindu and other media outlets, the petition asserted that the information disseminated indicated that the majority of the bonds were provided to political parties as quid pro quo arrangements by corporate entities.

### Important cases

Common Cause India has filed many Public Interest Litigations (PILs) at the High Courts and Supreme Court of India including those challenging the allocations of 2G Spectrum, the Coal Scam Case, Living Will case for patients’ right to die with dignity, and the illegality of the Electoral Bonds Scheme for the funding of political parties. Common Cause India was a co-petitioner along with Prakash Singh of the Indian Police Service (IPS) in the Prakash Singh Vs Union of India (2006) case in the Supreme Court of India.

#### Governing Council members

Its Governing Council members include economist Mr Nitin Desai, former Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations from 1992 to 2003; environmental scientist, Dr Ashok Khosla, Chairman of Development Alternatives; industrialist, Vikram Lal, the founder and former CEO of Eicher Motors, India; former Secretary to the Government of India, Kamal Kant Jaswal of the Indian Administrative Service; former IPS Officer Prakash Singh, a former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Assam and BSF; Right to Information activist Anjali Bhardwaj; author, publisher and educator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta; and democracy activist Nikhil Dey, the co-founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.
Shri Govind Naraian ICS (Retd.), former Governor of Karnataka and Padma Vibhushan awardee is a former President of Common Cause India.

## Initiatives and reports

Common Cause brings out the Annual Status of Policing in India Reports (SPIR) on police reforms in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). The SPIR evaluates the performance of the police and the levels of the citizens’ trust and satisfaction in policing.
Common Cause is also a partner in the India Justice Report (IJR) which ranks the capacity of the justice system. The India Justice Report is a national periodic reporting initiative that is first of its kind. It unifies previously siloed information to assess each state's four pillars of the justice system—the police, the jail system, the judiciary, and legal aid—by comparing them to their own set of stated benchmarks or standards.