PIL, Difficult To Swallow?

In a recent ruling, the Bombay High Court lamented the increasing number of frivolous public interest litigations being filed in courts and echoed the sentiments of the Supreme Court that such litigations are the bane of the judicial system. Is there any way to restrict their misuse?

- Dr Swati Jindal Garg

Justice PN Bhagwati, the 17th chief justice of India, in the landmark case of SP Gupta vs Union of India had rightly remarked: "The court has to innovate new methods and strategies to provide access to justice to large masses of people who are denied basic human rights, to whom freedom and liberty have no meaning." The concept of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was introduced by the apex court in order to reach out to those who cannot represent themselves, or for that matter, even reach the courts of law. However, there is indeed such a thing as having too much of a good thing and it was soon obvious that even for a well-thought-out concept like a PIL, errant factions of the public found ways and means to misuse it.

Despite its intended purpose of empowering and strengthening the underprivileged in society, the PIL has been frequently misused as a weapon and often wasted the precious time of courts. In a recent ruling, the Bombay High Court has lamented the increasing number of frivolous PILs being filed in courts and echoed the sentiments of the Supreme Court that such PILS are the bane of our judicial system. Terming one such PIL as a classic case of gross abuse of the court process, the division bench of Justices GS Patel and SG Dige went as far as to direct that a pre-hearing deposit of Rs 3 lakh made by the petitioner in that PIL be converted to costs and paid to a cancer institute!

This is not the first case where a frivolous PIL has been fined. Way back in 2017, the Supreme Court, while dismissing a frivolous petition, commented on how the concept of PIL will have to be revisited due to its misuse. The Court also talked about how the concept was introduced to safeguard the poor, the oppressed and the needy whose fundamental rights are frequently infringed upon and violated and whose grievances remain unrepresented, unheard and unnoticed. It lamented that the PIL is now being abused to achieve political mileage and popularity.