Lok Sabha Question No. 844 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: Public Interest Litigation
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Sukanta Majumdar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY Of LAW AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS

Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 844 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.06.2019

## Public Interest Litigation

## 844. DR.SUKANTAMAJUMDAR :

Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE, be pleased to state:

- (a) the total number of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed in the Supreme Court and various High Courts during the last three years and the current year, court-wise;
- (b) whether the Government is aware of a larger number of frivolous litigations being   filed under the guise of PIL;
- (c) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to initiate action to check such frivolous litigations; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## Statement referred to in reply to parts (b) to (e) of the Unstarred Question no. 844 for answer in the Lok Sabha on 26.06.2019.

## (a) The information is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House

- (b) to (e) A Public Interest Litigation may be filed before the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the  Constitution under their respective Writ Jurisdictions.  The  Hon'ble  Supreme  Court  from  time  to  time through its various judgments has observed that the Court must be careful to see that the member of the public, who approaches the court through Public Interest Litigation is acting bona fide and not  for  personal  gain  or  private  profit  or  political  motivation  or other oblique consideration. The court must not allow its process to  be  abused  by  any  people,  organisations  and  institutions  by filing  meaningless  petitions  in  the  name  of  PILs.  Public-interest litigation is a rule  of  declared  law by  the  courts  of  record. However, the person (or entity) filing the petition is being filed for the public interest and not as a frivolous litigation for pecuniary gain.  The  Supreme Court  in  the  case  of  State  of  Uttarakhand  vs. Balwant  Singh  Chaufal  and  others  had  held  that  in  order  to preserve  the  purity  and  sanctity  of  the  PIL,  it  has  become imperative to issue the following directions:-
- (a) The courts must encourage genuine and bona fide PIL and  effectively  discourage  and  curb  the  PIL  filed  for extraneous considerations.
- (b) Instead  of  every  individual  judge  devising  his  own procedure for dealing with the public interest litigation, it would be appropriate for each High Court to properly formulate rules for encouraging the genuine  PIL  and  discouraging  the  PIL  filed  with oblique  motives.  Consequently,  we  request  that  the High  Courts  who  have  not  yet  framed  the  rules, should  frame  the  rules  within  three  months.  The Registrar  General  of  each  High  Court  is  directed  to ensure that a copy of the Rules prepared by the High Court  is  sent  to  the  Secretary  General  of  this  court immediately thereafter.
- (c) The courts should prima facie verify the credentials of the petitioner before entertaining a P.I.L.
- (d) The  court  should  be  prima  facie  satisfied  regarding the correctness of the contents of the petition before entertaining a PIL.
- (e) The  court  should  be  fully  satisfied  that  substantial public  interest  is  involved  before  entertaining  the petition.
- (f) The  court  should  ensure  that  the  petition  which involves  larger  public  interest,  gravity  and  urgency must be given priority over other petitions.
- (g) The courts before entertaining the PIL should ensure that  the  PIL  is  aimed  at  redressal  of  genuine  public harm or public  injury.  The  court  should  also  ensure that  there  is  no  personal  gain,  private  motive  or oblique motive behind filing the public interest litigation.
- (h) The court should also  ensure that  the petitions  filed by  busybodies  for  extraneous  and  ulterior  motives must be discouraged by imposing exemplary costs or by  adopting  similar  novel  methods  to  curb  frivolous petitions and the petitions filed for extraneous considerations.

Since  Hon'ble  Supreme  Court  has  been  issuing  guidelines  from time to time to put a check on these meaningless litigation, no further governmental actions is considered necessary at this stage.