PIL- Public Interest Litigation

PIL. Public Interest Litigation is a litigation whose basic objective is to protect the fundamental rights and to make justice accessible to the common man. The PIL originated in the US and the credit for its introduction in India goes to P.N. Bhagwati. PIL, It can be filed by any person in High Court and Supreme Court. Public interest litigation can be filed in the High Court under Article 226 and in the Supreme Court under Article 32. It can be filed in respect of child labour, education, human rights, environment, poverty, judiciary and other social issues.

The object of public interest litigation is public interest and not self interest.For the acceptance of public interest litigation, the Supreme Court has made some rules in which any person motivated by public interest can file it. The postcard given to the court can also be considered as a petition.PIL It is filed in two ways, one in the High Court and the other in the Supreme Court. While filing in the High Court, two copies of the petition have to be submitted to the court and a copy of the petition has to be sent to each respondent.

Akbar-The great Mughal Emperor

While filing a petition in the Supreme Court, five copies are filed in the court. The copy of the petition is given to the respondent only after the notice is issued by the court. It is not necessary that the PIL should be accepted by the court. An example of this , a petition filed by AIADMK MP P.G. Narayanan in the Madras High Court, requesting the Court to disallow Sun TV Pvt Ltd’s application for direct to home service in public interest to the Union Government, which was rejected by the Court. But in the present times there has been an increase in the misuse of PILs. This usually obstructs judicial work.

Due to which the number of pending cases in the court has increased. Such a petition has also been strongly criticized by the court and termed as interfering. In this context, the Supreme Court observed – “Public interest litigation is not a pill, nor a medicine for every disease. To prevent the misuse of PIL by the court, some guidelines have been prescribed in which the court should motivate the necessary petitions and stop the unnecessary petitions. The court should ensure whether the petition is really related to public interest or not.