Public Interest Litigation
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
PIL refers to litigation promised to secure public interest & demonstrates the availability of injustice to the people who ‘actually’ need it but couldn’t arrange it for themselves.
It is the use of the law to advance human rights & equality, or raise issues of broad public concern. PIL solemnly promises to help advance the cause of minority & needy. PIL is the power given to the public by courts through judicial activism.
PIL is a kind of litigation
PIL is a kind of litigation where in it is not a mandate that only an aggrieved party can initiate legal proceeding, any third party who has the resources is empowered to start litigation on behalf of the ‘aggrieved and for the aggrieved’, who has been encroached upon or whose rights have been suppressed & violated. PIL is filed under article 32 & 226 of the Constitution of India.
Therefore, it is called for the safeguard of the interest of the public. That interest could be anything, pollution, human rights violation, illegal detention, inhumane prison living conditions, hate speeches, environment exploitation, and violation of rights by any enacted law.
Justice P.N Bhagwati & Justice V.R Krishna Iyer were the pioneers whose splendid efforts were instrumental of this juristic revolution, through this mechanism, justice was & is to be provided to all the needy & disadvantaged.
Hussainkhara Khatoon v. St. of Bihar, the first reported case of PIL, it highlighted the plight of under trial prisoners languishing in various jails in Bihar. It led to release of more than 40,000 under trial prisoners. Right to speedy justice emerged as a basic fundamental right which and been denied to these prisoners.
People’s Union for Democrati rights v. UOI, it recognized that a third party could directly petition, whether through a letter or other means, the court & seek its intervention in a matter where another party’s fundamental rights were being violated.
