ALL ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
HISTORY:-
Public Interest Litigation was firstly introduced in the United States in the mid 1960s. Since the nineteenth century, various movement in that country had contributed to a public interest law, which was part of the legal aid movement. The first legal aid office was established in New York in 1876. In the 1960s the PIL movement began to receive economical support from the office of economic opportunities.
In England PIL made a mark during the years of
Lord Denning in the 1970s. He was the petitioner brought several public issue
in the court.
History of PIL in India:
PIL had begun in India toward the end of 1970s and came into full bloom in the 80s. Justice V.K Iyer and P.N Bhagawati, Honourable Judges of Supreme Court of India Delivered some Landmark Judgment which opened up new vistas in PIL.In Fertilizer Corporation Kamgar vs. Union of India(AIR 1981 SC 344), Justice Iyer and Bhagwati used the term PIL for the first time in the judgment. The judgment also used the term “epistolary jurisdiction” referring to setter-petitions.
MEANING OF PIL:
PIL is a “strategic arm” of the legal aid movement
expected to bring justice within the reach of poor masses. In the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Janata
Dal vs. H.S Chowdhury, 1982 it defines “ a legal action initiated in a court of
law for the enforcement of public interest or general interest in which the
public or the class of the community have pecuniary interest or some interest
by which their legal right or liabilities are affected.”
WHAT SORT OF ISSUE CAN BE TAKEN FOR PIL?
PIL can be initiated to the matter relating to:
1. Basic
amenities related to water, medicine, road, electricity, school, health etc
2. Illegal
detention of arrested person
3. Torture
of prisoner’s right
4. Speedy
trial of undertrials
5. Ragging
in college
6. Maintenance of law and order
7. Payment
of minimum wages
8. Legal
aid to poor
9. Starvation
death
10. Environmental pollution
11. Unauthorised eviction
12. Dowry Death
13. Implementation of welfare laws
14. Violation of fundamental right of
weaker section
DIFFERENT WAYS TO FILE PIL
* Sending letter petitions with relevant fact and document to the chief justice of the concerned court. The matter must be sent by registered post.
· * By direct filing the PIl in the court
through Free Legal Service Committee of the court.
· * Direct filing the case with the help
of any PIL lawyer.
· * Filing the case through NGOs or PIL
firms.
EXAMPLES OF PILs
1. Demand
of Asiad workers for their right under labour laws
2. Eviction
of Gudalur farmers
3. Right
to sell vegetable in footpath(1982)
4. Liberation
of Pichola bonded Labours
5. Faridabad
Bonded Labour cast
6. Rehabilitation
of Bonded Labourers
7. Case
against custodial violence(1983)
8. Petition
for speedy trials of juvenile undertrails(1985)
9. Ban of harmful drug(1983)
Children employed in match factories(AIR 1991 SC 417)
IMPACT OF PIL
1. Because of PIL people are now aware that the
court have constitutional power of intervention, which can be used to mitigate
their misery arising from repression, lawlessness and administrative negligence
and indifference.
2. Today,
undertrials, convicted prisoners, bonded labours, unorganized laboursers,
exploited women, slum dwellers etc have access to the supreme court and high
court for securing their human right.
3. PIL
has awakened the consciousness of the public regarding the dignity of human
life and the importance of liberty and the right of equal justice.
4. It
is the beginning of the revolution in our system of delivery of the justice and
it “nourishes hope in an otherwise darkening landscape of legal Jurisprudenc”
5. The
court decisions passed on PIL have exposed the state’s liability to
compensation for violation of fundamental right.
6. PIL
is the legal device that controls the government so as not to leave state
agencies free to violate the law or be casual or negligent in their enforcement.
PREPARED BY
STUDENT OF LLB AT LAW CENTRE II
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
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