A Public Interest Litigation is a petition which any member of the general public can
lodge with the High Court or the Supreme Court in the interests of the society. It is
nothing but tragic that the courts these days are not giving the due importance to such
PILs filed by concerned citizens, seeking intervention of the Judiciary to solve some
problem. It is not in the interest of the democracy to neglect PILs solely for the reason
that there have been one or two occasions when the opportunity to file PILs might have
been misused.
There have been instances in the past when higher courts acting upon media reports, have
voluntarily field PILs. There were even great judges who took up for hearing cases based
on some letters of public interest written to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
However, there are no such instances in the recent past. Except for the Mumbai High
Court voluntarily filing a PIL based on the services of reports published in a daily on the
corruption in the Transport Department of Maharashtra Government, such examples are
very rare. Today, a demand is heard from human rights activists and social activists to
permit even the district courts to register PILs instead of the present system wherein only
the High Courts and Supreme Courts have the authority to accept PILs for hearing.
Such a demand for the district courts to voluntarily file PILs in response to the
public interest reports published in local dailies, is in accordance with the need for
decentralization of even the judicial powers.
Should we have to take our petitions seeking judicial intervention to solve some local
problem, all the way either to Bangalore or Delhi ? In this backdrop, it would be very
much justifiable, if even the district courts are given the authority to accept PILs.
If the existing laws need to be amended for the same, then let the Union Government
make a move in this direction.. Even our elected representatives should pressurize the
government in this regard.
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