Last week the Calcutta High Court had issued a notification in the Kolkata Gazette for inclusion of the new rules on the PIL.

According the notification, if the Division Bench found “any PIL was frivolous or made with malafide intention or both, it may not only impose exemplary cost against the petitioner but also debar him from presenting any PIL in future before this court for such period as it thinks fit”.

While dismissing the frivolous PIL, the cost would be deposited in the fund to be operated by the registrar general of the High Court and the money should be deposited with the State Legal Services Authority, said the notification. This kind of notification was issued for the first time by the High Court.

The Supreme Court had suggested to set up a committee to screen the PIL before placing it before the Bench. So it would be better to form a screening committee which would examine the PIL filed in the High Court, said Sovan Lal Hazra, pleader of the state government.

The present trend of filing PILs disturbed the intention of those petitions which had a greater public interest. “But the government has been harassed by the frivolous PILs, so the cost imposed by the High Court should be realised by it,” Hazra added.

Environmentalist Subash Dutta, who had moved many PILs in the High Court since 1995, welcomed the notification. “The Division Bench should judge the PIL in pragmatic and practical way,” he said.