ROUGH DRAFT

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-I
The Concept of Public Interest Litigation in India
Roll No.-19048

Group No-09

Submitted By: Shreya Sharma Submitted To: Professor Siddhartha Fuller

SYNOPSIS
• STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

Public Interest Litigation (PIL), as the name suggests, means litigation done in the larger
good of the public. This concept has evolved to develop and guarantee a safeguard measure
to those people who are unable to stand up and fight for their rights. The instituting of a case
in a court of law is a lengthy, expensive and an energy consuming process which involves the
technicalities and complications of applicative law procedures. It is a noted and accepted fact
that the people who are gravely affected by reasons of mass violations of rights, are those
people who are poor and who do not know how to approach an adjudicatory body. Therefore,
to provide such people respite and remedy, the courts, on the efforts of a proactive and pro-
public judiciary have developed the concept of PILs which allow third parties who are
neutral to the subject matter of the problem, take up the case and represent it in a court of
law, thereby broadening the locus standi.

The present research deals with the use and misuse of the concept of PILs and determine
whether this tool is being used for the benefit of the public, or has fallen prey to the mala fide
intentions and vested interests of the influential section of the society who are misusing this
facility to further their interests. If the courts do not restrict the free flow of cases in the fake
of PILs, traditional litigation will suffer a lot, and that would be a threat to Indian democracy
and to the entire judicial process.

• REASEARCH QUESTION:

The research question chosen by me is, the detailed study into the concept of Public Interest
Litigation in India and determination of the fact, whether this concept is a boon for the
people of India or has proved to be a bane for the purposes of the same. For everything in
law, has its plus points and its negatives, this Project aims at determining the truth and the
true aspect of the public interest litigation.
 • OJECTIVES OF RESEARCH:
1. To study the origin of the concept of PIL.

2. To study the evolution and development of PIL in India

3. To discuss the instances of successful adjudication of rights of people through the advent
of PIL in India

4. To study the cases of misuse of PIL in India

5. To suggest measures of keeping a check on the misuse of PIL.

• PROJECT

1.Introduction- In this section, the researcher has introduced the topic of the project and has tried
to explain the related research methodology which has been applied by her.

2. Origin And Development Of The Concept Of Public Interest Litigation-In this section, the
researcher has discussed and examined in detail, the Origin and Development of the concept of
Public Interest Litigation and determination of the principle of locus standi.

3. Relation between PIL and Judicial Activism and the emergence of PIL in India- In this
section, the researcher has dealt with the questions: What is Judicial Activism? , What is the
relation b/w PIL and Judicial Activism along with the development of the concept of PIL in India
through various Judicial Predicaments and efforts of the Judges who played an important and
major role in determining this concept.

4. Positive points Of the concept of PIL:A boon To The Judicial System - In this section, the
researcher has analyzed the positive points of the concept along with various cases which were
decided by the higher judiciary, by means of Public Interest Litigation.

5. Limitations And Misuse Of Public Interest Litigation: A Bane To The Justice System-In this
section, the researcher has studied the misuse of the concept of Public Interest Litigations and the
repercussions of its misuse, along with suitable instances where the judiciary has reprimanded
the litigators for instituting false and frivolous cases through the medium of PIL.

6.Conclusion-This section sums up the views of the researcher and suggestions are provided for
keeping the true spirit of the concept alive .

7.Bibliography-