Problems facing Public Interest Litigation in India

At the time of independence , court procedure was drawn from the Anglo-Saxon system of jurisprudence. The bulk of citizens were unaware of their legal rights and much less in a position to assert them. And as a result, there was hardly any link between the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Indian Union and the laws made by the legislature on the one hand and the vast majority of illiterate citizens on the other. However, this scenario gradually changed when the post
emergency Supreme Court tackled the problem of access to justice by people through radical changes and alterations made in the requirements of locus standi and of party aggrieved. Prior to 1980s, only the aggrieved party could personally knock the doors of justice and seek remedy for his grievance and any other person who was not personally affected could not knock the doors of justice as a proxy for the victim or the aggrieved party. Public Interest Litigation as it has developed in in recent years marks a significant departure from traditional judicial proceedings. The court is now seen as an institution not only reaching out to provide relief to citizens but even venturing into formulation policy which the state must follow.

The splendid efforts of Justice P N Bhagwati and Justice V R Krishna Iyer were instrumental of this juristic revolution of eighties to convert the apex court of India into a Supreme Court for all Indians.

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been an invaluable innovative judicial remedy. It has translated the rhetoric of fundamental rights into living reality for at least some segments of our exploited and downtrodden humanity. Under trial prisoners languishing in jails for inordinately long periods, inmates of asylums and care-homes living in sub-human conditions, children working in hazardous occupations and similar disadvantaged sections.
But the development of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the country has very recently uncovered its own pitfalls and drawbacks.

1.The genuine causes and cases of public interest have in fact receded to the background and irresponsible PIL activists all over the country have started to play a major but not a constructive role in the arena of litigation. In a recent case the court while dismissing an ostensible PIL against the sale of a plot of land through public auction, held that the matter had not been raised in public interest at all, but to ventilate a private grievance. Of late, many of the PIL activists in the country have found the PIL as a handy tool of harassment since frivolous cases could be filed without investment of heavy court fees as required in private civil litigation and deals could then be negotiated with the victims of stay orders obtained in the so-called PILs. Just as a weapon meant for defense can be used equally effectively for offence, the lowering of the locus standi requirement has permitted privately motivated interests to pose as public interests.

The abuse of PIL has become more rampant than its use and genuine causes either receded to the background or began to be viewed with the suspicion generated by spurious causes mooted by privately motivated interests in the disguise of the so-called public interests. Every matter of public interest cannot be the basis of a PIL, e.g. increase in the price of onions or in railway fares or the dilapidated condition of railway stations or the Red Fort or trains not running on time. Over the years, PIL has degenerated into Private Interest Litigation, Political Interest Litigation, and above all, Publicity Interest Litigation. Weakness for publicity affects judges, lawyers and litigants alike.

2.The framers of Indian constitution did not incorporate a strict doctrine of separation of powers but envisaged a system of checks and balances. Policy making and implementation of policy are conventionally regarding as the exclusive domain of the executive and the legislature. The power of judicial review cannot be used by the court to usurp or abdicate the powers of other organs. PIL in practice, however, tends to narrow the divide between the roles of the various organs of government and has invited controversy principally for this reason. The court has sometime even obliterated the distinction between law and policy. The approach of the court in policy matters is to ask whether the implementation or non-implementation of the policy result in a violation of fundamental rights. In M.N Mehta v union of India, the court explained how despite the enactment of Environment (protection) Act, 1986, there had been a considerable decline in the quality of environment. Any further delay in the performance of duty by the central government cannot, therefore, be permitted. The court, however, required the central government to indicate what steps it had taken thus far and also place before it the national policy for the protection of environment. The law and policy divide was obliterated in Vishaka v State of Rajasthan which was a PIL concerning sexual harassment of women at work place.

A significant feature of this decision was the courts readiness to step in where the legislature had not. The court declared that till the legislature enacted a law consistent with the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which India was a signatory, the guidelines set out by the court would be enforceable. However, in the Delhi Science Forum v Union of India where the government of India telecommunication policy was challenged by a PIL the court refused to interfere with the matter on the ground that it concerned a question of policy. PILs that have sought prohibition on sale of liquor or recognition of a particular language as the national language or the introduction of a uniform civil code have been rejected on the basis that these were matters of policy. The court may refuse to entertain a PIL if it finds that the issues raised are not within the judicial ambit or capacity. Thus, a petition seeking directions to the central government to preserve and protect the Gyanvapi Masjid and the Vsihwanath temple at Varanasi as well as the Krishna temple and Idgah at Mathura was rejected. Despite such observations the court has not adopted a uniform and consistent approach in dealing with its emerging role as policy maker. While in some cases, the court has expressed its reluctance to step into the legislative field, in others it has laid down detailed guidelines and explicitly formulated policy.

3.The flexibility of procedure that is a character of PIL has given rise to another set of problems. It gives an opportunity to opposite parties to ascertain the precise allegation and respond specific issues. The PIL relating to depletion of forest cover is a case in pint. The petition, as originally drafted and presented, pertained to the arbitrary felling of Khair trees in Jammu and Kashmir. The PIL has now been enlarged by the court to encompass all forests throughout India. Individual States, therefore, will not be able to respond to the original pleading as such, since it may not concern them at all. The reports given by court appointed commissioners raise problems regarding their evidentiary value. No court can found its decision on facts unless they are proved according to law. This implies the right of an adversary to test them by cross-examination or atleast counter-affidavits. In such instances the affected parties may have misgivings about the role of the court.

4.In the political arena too, the debate over the limits of judicial activism , particularly in the field of PIL, has been vigorous. The attempt by the judiciary through PILs to enter the area of policy making and policy implementation has caused concern in political circles. A private members bill, entitled Public Interest Litigation (Regulation) Bill, 1996 was tabled in Rajya Sabha. According to it the PIL was being grossly misused. Moreover, PIL cases were being given priority over other cases, which had remained pending in the court for years. It was urged that if a PIL petition failed or was shown to be mala fide the petitioner should be put behind bars and pay the damages. Although the bill lapsed, the debate in parliament revealed some of the criticism and suspicion that PIL had begun to attract.

5.The credibility of PIL process is now adversely affected by the criticism that the judiciary is overstepping the boundaries pf its jurisdiction and that it is unable to supervise the effective implementation of its orders. It has also been increasingly felt that PIL is being misused by the people agitating for private grievance in the grab of public interest and seeking publicity rather than espousing public cause. The judiciary has itself recognized and articulated these concerns periodically. A further concern is that as the judiciary enters into the policy making arena it will have to fashion new remedies and mechanisms for ensuring effective compliance with its orders. A judicial system can suffer no greater lack of credibility than a perception that its order can be flouted with impunity. This court must refrain from passing orders that cannot be enforced, whatever the fundamental right may be and however good the cause. It serves no purpose to issue some high profile mandamus or declaration that can remain only on paper. Although usually the Supreme Court immediately passes interim orders for relief, rarely is a final verdict given, and in most of the cases, the follow-up is poor.

To regulate the abuse of PIL the apex court itself has framed certain guidelines (to govern the management and disposal of PILs.) The court must be careful to see that the petitioner who approaches it is acting bona fide and not for personal gain, private profit or political or other oblique considerations. The court should not allow its process to be abused by politicians and others to delay legitimate administrative action or to gain political objectives. At present, the court can treat a letter as a writ petition and take action upon it. But, it is not every letter which may be treated as a writ petition by the court. The court would be justified in treating the letter as a writ petition only in the following cases-
(i) It is only where the letter is addressed by an aggrieved person or
(ii) a public spirited individual or
(iii) a social action group for enforcement of the constitutional or the legal rights of a person in custody or of a class or group of persons who by reason of poverty, disability or socially or economically disadvantaged position find it difficult to approach the court for redress. Even though it is very much essential to curb the misuse and abuse of PIL, any move by the government to regulate the PIL results in widespread protests from those who are not aware of its abuse and equate any form of regulation with erosion of their fundamental rights.

In his recent write up, Mr. Soli Sorabji, the former Attorney General while applauding the liberalization of the rule of locus standi by the Supreme Court of India benefiting under-trial prisoners languishing in jail for inordinately long periods, inmates of asylums and care homes living in sub-human conditions, children working in hazardous occupation and similar disadvantaged persons, has lamented that PIL is being abused with increasing frequency and that over the years.

He made the following suggestions:
i. Reject dubious PIL at the threshold, and in appropriate case with exemplary costs,
ii. In cases where important projects or socio-economic regulations are challenged after gross delay, such petitions should be thrown out at the very threshold on the ground of latches. Just because a petition is termed as PIL does not mean that ordinary principles applicable to litigation will not apply. Latches is one of them. In the U.K., for enabling an applicant seeking an order of judicial review the applicant has to satisfy the test of sufficient interest in the matter to which the application relates. For satisfying this test an applicant need not have a direct legal or financial interest but a mere busy body will not have sufficient interest.. It is, however, not necessary that applicants interest should be different from that of an ordinary member of the public. An applicant having no personal connection with the dispute, in the traditional sense of locus standi, may be allowed standing, if in its discretion, the court considers the case to be of sufficient public importance. The courts have held in the U.K. that standing should usually be considered along with the merits of the case and not as a preliminary issue.

The Ontario Law Reform Commission Report

on the law of Standing, 1989, recommended that any person should be able to commence a proceeding unless a party satisfies the Court that there exist factors against proceeding that outweigh the factors in favour of the proceedings. The factors to be considered by the court would include:
i. whether the issue is trivial;
ii. in case where the applicant does not have a personal, proprietary or pecuniary interest the number of people affected;
iii. whether another reasonable and effective method exists to raise the issues that are sought to be litigated;
iv. whether another proceeding has been instituted against the same opponent in which the same issues arise and the interests of the applicant could be met by intervening in those proceedings and it is reasonable to expect the applicant to do so;
v. whether to proceed would be unfair to persons affected.

Public Interest Litigants fear that implementation of these suggestions will sound the death-knell of the people friendly concept of PIL. However, it cannot be denied that PIL activists should be responsible and accountable. It is also notable here that even the Consumers Protection Act, 1986 has been amended to provide compensation to opposite parties in cases of frivolous complaints made by consumers. PIL requires rethinking and restructuring. Overuse and abuse of PIL will make it ineffective. PIL has translated the rhetoric of fundamental rights into living reality for at least some segments of our exploited and downtrodden humanity. Under trial prisoners languishing in jails for inordinately long periods, inmates of asylums and care-homes living in sub-human conditions, children working in hazardous occupations and similar disadvantaged sections. Hence, any change to improve it further should be encouraged and welcomed.

All About PIL
* Its origin and meaning
* What is PIL?
* Concept, Meaning & Definition
* Procedure for Filing PIL
* Against whom PIL can be filed
* Mechanism for protection of Human Rights through PIL

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The development of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the country has very recently

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