PUBLICITY INTEREST LITIGATIONS

Though PlLs are meant to help the poor, they are being increasingly misused by vested parties. This has overburdened the judiciary and led to delays in disposal of bonafide cases

- Banshika Garg

PUBLIC Interest Litigation (PIL), a concept pioneered by Justice PN Bhagwati, former chief justice of India, to secure justice for the underprivileged, is of late being misused. It is being used as a tool to abuse the process of the law by way of “frivolous” and “self-motivated” petitions being filed before courts in the guise of PILS.

One such petition was recently dismissed by the Delhi High Court with a penalty of Rs 10,000. A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi noted that the petition was "completely frivolous" and does not call for any interference”. It also declined to entertain the plea seeking a “high-level enquiry” into allegations that the AAP and its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal have links with banned organisation "Sikhs for Justice” (SFJ) and other Khalistani forces.

The petition was filed by Advocate Rudra Vikram Singh on behalf of Congress leader Jagdish Sharma and alleged that SFJ and other banned Khalistani groups had funded AAP to contest elections in Punjab. In this regard, a reference was made to a letter written by erstwhile Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to Home Minister Amit Shah raising concern over the connection of AAP with the separatist forces and seeking investigation into the matter. The plea highlighted that a close ally of Kejriwal and a founding member of the party, Kumar Vishwas, had also made a statement on the same lines.