Question

Judicial activism through a process known as public interest litigation (PIL) has emerged as a powerful mechanism of social change in India. Discuss

Answer 1

Approach:

• Discuss about Judicial activism and Public Interest Litigation
• What is the significance of the PIL
• With some examples show how PIL act as a tool for social change in India.

Judicial activism:
Judicial activism is the proactive role played by the judiciary in the protection of the rights of citizens and in the promotion of justice in the society. It is a way of exercising judicial power that motivates judges to depart from normally practised strict adherence to judicial precedent in favour of progressive and new social policies.

Public Interest Litigation:
PIL is a legal action initiated in a court of law for the enforcement of public interest or general interest in which the public or class of the community have pecuniary interest or some interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected.

It can be filed in any High Court or directly in the Supreme Court. PIL is a right given to the socially conscious member or a public spirited NGO to espouse a public cause by seeking judicial for redressal of public injury.

Significance of the PIL:
The public interest litigation is working as an important instrument of social change. It is working for the welfare of every section of society. It has been used as a strategy to combat the atrocities prevailing in society. The main application of the PIL are

• Clarify the law.
• Hold public bodies to account by ensuring that they make appropriate decisions, act fairly and transparently and within the remit of their powers.
• Help develop the law by giving judges the opportunity to interpret legislation.
• Give vulnerable people a voice by highlighting an important issue and providing a platform for advocating for their rights.
• Raise awareness of important issues encouraging public debate and media coverage.

PIL as social change in India:
The seeds of the concept of public interest litigation were initially sown in India by Justice Krishna Iyer and further enhanced by Justice P.N. Bhagawati. Some of the important PIL cases in India are as follows:

• The first PIL in 1979 was focused on the inhuman conditions of prisons and under trial prisoners in the Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar case.
• In Citizen for Democracy v. State of Assam the Supreme Court declared that handcuffs and other fetters shall not be forced upon a prisoner while lodged in jail or while in transport or transit from one jail to another or to the court or back.
• The Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan led to the formulation of the guidelines for the protection of women from sexual harassment at work places.
• The M.C. Mehta v. Union of India made the fundamental right to have clean environment which helped to take up the cause against environmental pollution.

Thus the public interest litigation helps in the upholding of the interest of the general public from abuse of the State or individuals.

Conclusion:
Thus the public interest litigation had created an avenue for the grievance redressal when there is transgression in the interest of a community or public at large. It allows not only the affected but also others to approach the judiciary for the resolution of the issues. There is also misuse of the instrument by some sections on vested interest which needed to be dealt with stringent actions from the judiciary.