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An exasperated Bench of the Court felt litigation by way of PIL has become a “brahmashtra” and on all issues PILs are being filed consuming the judicial time needed for regular matters and said the situation warranted a tough decision.
PIL is no longer a public interest litigation but has taken a shape of “private interest litigation, publicity interest litigation or paisa income litigation,” a Bench comprising Justices H K Sema and Markandey Katju said.
“Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was for weaker section of society those who do not have money. It, however has become nuisance,” it said.
Justice Katju said time has come to curb the practice by imposing huge cost on petitioners for filing frivolous petitions which defeated the purpose for which it was evolved.
“There is a need for strict action otherwise people will not understand. Unless and untill we impose penalty of Rs one lakh people will not stop filing frivolous PILs,” he said.
The remarks came during the hearing of a bunch of PILs seeking guidelines on premature release of convicts serving life sentence in various jails across the country.
The Bench said that there are some genuine and good PILs and rest around 95 per cent are frivolous causing wastage of judicial time.
“We are engaged in doing frivolous work. We are unable to do regular work,” Justice Katju said recalling his experience as a judge of three High Courts.
“In the High Courts half the time goes in frivolous work,” he said adding that most of the PILs are “bogus” to which Justice Sema also agreed.
Even in the absence of guidelines, anyone with a common sense can determine what is and what is not a public interest litigation. I give you two examples - A man filing a PIL against Orissa Medical board which refused admission into the MBBS program to a female candidate because she had polio. On the ground that she will not be able to fulfil her duties as a doctor. The defendent's contention was that since she is not applying for a surgical position, her polio should in no way hamper her in dischraging her duties as a doctor especially since she is able to ambulate on her own using crutches. Now in my mind this is a valid PIL. It prevents private or public organization from discriminating against people with disabilities - a safeguard that is constitutionally guranteed to the citizens of India. Compare this to a PIL which was files against and American actor Richard Gere for kissing an Indian actress Shilpa Shetty on the cheeks, in a private function (which was attended by the public). Again as a man with normal common sense, it is clear to me that the petitioner has no locus standii suing a private citizen for kissing another private citizen in a private function. This was a "frivilous" PIL. There was no "public interest" involved in it. IT was not meant to enhance the life or improve the lives of Indian citizens. It was merely an effort by a moron to get his 15 minutes of fame or worse, an effort by a totalitarian mind to impose his moral values rest of the free citizens of India who does not necessarily agree with his moral code.
Public Interest Litigations are an highly important path for many improvements in society as a whole, which can bring about the needed changes through the help of judiciary, when other venues fail.However, in any goodwill venture, there is always some nuisance that developes. This nuisance needs to be contained, and as suggested by the SC, one way of containing it can be a penalty, if any PIL is filed for Personal Interests.If the valuable time of the Courts is getting wasted, then the Honourable Courts can simply assign a Judge for evaluating a PIL and admitting it or rejecting it.PIL is one forum that has been granted to the people of India, and it should not be made a difficult and expensive enterprise.Overall, why not DEFINE the PIL, before moving forward to restrict it?A definition always sets the parameters!Mohammed Abdul AleemJeddah, Saudi ArabiaP.S.: To the Editor. Because Saudi Arabia is not mentioned in the country of selection, I am marking this comment as from India.
How come they have not suggested to increase man power ie judges..???
Justice Katju is a nuisance. PIL is one of the ways we are able to sustain the constitution. Justice Katju should join politics and leave judiciary to function.
Though nuisance, it is extremely important in the present set up to keep the administration under check. This is a necessary evil and should not be scrapped to save democratic principle.
Unfortunately, while the Supreme Court has, of late, started demonising the PIL, it has not laid any guidelines for determining whether what kind of PIL should be branded frivolous. It is easier to criticise something than to lay norms
Even in the absence of guidelines, anyone with a common sense can determine what is and what is not a public interest litigation. I give you two examples - A man filing a PIL against Orissa Medical board which refused admission into the MBBS program to a female candidate because she had polio. On the ground that she will not be able to fulfil her duties as a doctor. The defendent's contention was that since she is not applying for a surgical position, her polio should in no way hamper her in dischraging her duties as a doctor especially since she is able to ambulate on her own using crutches. Now in my mind this is a valid PIL. It prevents private or public organization from discriminating against people with disabilities - a safeguard that is constitutionally guranteed to the citizens of India. Compare this to a PIL which was files against and American actor Richard Gere for kissing an Indian actress Shilpa Shetty on the cheeks, in a private function (which was attended by the public). Again as a man with normal common sense, it is clear to me that the petitioner has no locus standii suing a private citizen for kissing another private citizen in a private function. This was a "frivilous" PIL.
Don't slap a penalty!! Just order them to do some social service. If you say penalty, no body will come forward. So, please please and please no penalty!
PILs are amust in a country which is slow and sloppy in administration.To side with such government is to side with injustice.If the judiciary itself is sloppy and inefficient and delayed who will the citizen turn to?Can we went our anger in writings or will Sc curtail that also?
Why did it so long for somebody to take stance on this. One reason China is firing ahead of us on developmental front with agerage GDP already double that of Indian.
That's true.
Well, judges begin to see the logic. It is good. But again, who is responsible for this PIL mess? I can say without any doubt, judiciary is guilty. Eager to attain public attention, anyone give a petition, the judiciary taken up, issue unthinkable directions. Encouraged by judiciary, this PIL became a pain the ash of the nation. Any stupid PIL can stop a multi billion project. The requirements is only a paper, oneday and some cash for a lawyer. In any advanced countries, judiciary refrain from "injuction orders", unless it is endangering human lives or causing immediate losses. But in India, sometime we wonder, if the higher courts are for just overtuning the lower court orders. It will only loose the faith on judiciary. Courts must allow the natural course of justis to follow, and do not interfere until the right time come. Even in this PIl issue, I feel the judges are overacting. Instead of giving lavish lucture, they should reject any PIL which is unwarrented, and the meance will automatically go down. Fine the petitioners are good if there is mal_intention, otherwise, fining will cause irrestistable damages to a citizens ability to confront the society.
Instead they should fine tune the PIL's scope. The weaker section of the society is blessed with this sort of arrangements, including the RTI. They should not be deprived.
judiciary should first think if they are doing their duties properly. there is nobody to ask if the judge doesn't come to court or goes earlier. kerala high court once witnessed empty benches as all of them went to attend the marriage of the son of one of them.
In India, police station is the epicenter of crime and judiciary is the epicenter of corruption. Ineffectiveness, mistrust, no confidence in government and judiciary and keeping Afzal alive force public to take law and order in their hands.
It is long overdue, overzealous and cheap lawyers are misusing the entire system to get their 15 seconds of fame.I think the penalty should be 10 Lacs so they can really think thousand times before wasting everyones time.
Justices Sema and Katju are right in condemning frivilous and bogus PILs and asking for penal provisions for checking the menace. A Lot of them should be eliminated at the scrutiny stage and returned with approprite fines to stop any misuse of this weapon of the weak to get justice in his fight against the powerful in the government.
Well done justices. This will prevent morons like that freaking lawyer who sued Sania Mirza or the moron who sued Richard Gere for giving a peck on the cheeks to Shilpa shetty from trying the PIL route to get their 15 minutes of fame. A country where 30,000,000 (yes 30 million) court cases are pending in the courts across the nation, such bullshit lawsuits are a criminal waste of court's time. It wouldn't be too harsh to assess even jail time for such frivilous lawsuits.
This is the worst side of indian judiciary. The longest case was a divorce case which went 63 year. The judgement came , the person was 90 and had died due to oldage and wife was 70 haa
Do The Judges claim that otherwise they douseful work ?
Great. So now the PILs can be filed only by people who have money?. I disagree with the judges view that around 90% of the petitions are useless. May be a small percentage but not 90%. Kudos to judges. BTW is any judge is saying anything about the rampant corruption in the judical system?.
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