PIL has become an ‘industry of vested interests’: SC

PIL has become an ‘industry of vested interests’: SC

Context

Supreme Court says it is a travesty of justice for the resources of the legal system to be consumed by an avalanche of misdirected public interest petitions 

What has happened?

The Supreme Court on Thursday ridiculed the Loya PIL petitions as a case in point of how public interest litigation has become an “industry of vested interests” rather than a powerful tool to espouse the cause of the marginalized and oppressed

SC Observed

• It was time for the judiciary to do a reality check on the advent of PIL petitions which flooded the courts
• The essential aspect of a genuine PIL petition was that the “person who moves the court has no personal interest in the outcome of the proceedings, apart from a general standing as a citizen before the court.”
• The judgment said PIL had now become a façade for people hungry for publicity or those who wanted to settle personal, business or political scores. The true face of the litigant behind the façade was seldom unravelled
• Judicial process would be reduced to a charade if nothing is done to close the floodgates of PILs