Legal Essay on Pil Text

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The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, email 160 protected and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. Additionally, a 500 internal server error error was encountered while trying to use an errordocument to handle the request. Public interest litigation hereinafter 'pil' was the innovation of not the legislature but the judiciary.

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The origin of the concept in 1970s and early 80s 1 is not based on economic considerations of efficiency but on ground of access to justice for the downtrodden who did not have access to the courts nor were fully aware of their rights and even if they were, they did not possess the means to get them enforced. 2 since it was not the invention of the legislature, perhaps this might be one of the reasons why there does not exist any statutory definition of pil. However, recently, high court at calcutta has provided a broad inclusive definition of pil in section 56 of the original side rules of the high court at calcutta, 1914 stating that: our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Helplessness or disability or socially or economically disadvantaged position, unable to approach the court for relief, and for redressal of which any member of the public not having any personal interest in the subject matter presents an application for an appropriate direction, order or writ in this court under article 226. Notwithstanding anything contained above, in any appropriate case, though the petitioner might have moved a court in his private interest and for redressal of personal grievances, the court in furtherance of the public interest involved therein may treat the subject of litigation in the interest of justice as ii public interest litigation.

3 this definition has a very broad connotation and innovative judges, who consider the interest of public at large, have interpreted law to overcome the inadequacy of the formal court system and private litigation to solve conflicts at macro level. Although, the main focus of such litigation is only 'public interest' there are various other areas where a pil can be filed e.g. Violation of basic human rights of the poor, content or conduct of government policy or compel municipal authorities to perform a public duty, constitutional vires of legal provisions/ statutes, etc. 4 public interest litigation is only an extension of the writ jurisdiction, the difference being that the court itself can initiate action in public interest if the concerned judge comes to know of any violations and the locus standi is relaxed so that any public spirited citizen can move the court. 5 it is also important to state that it would be a mistake if the court considers high profile cases as equivalent to issues of wide public importance. Issues which are of interest to the public are not necessarily in the public interest.

6 locus standi is an admissibility condition that acts as a 'gate keeper for the filing of cases.' 7 in private law, traditional economic arguments against the relaxation of locus standi rule were that this would lead to too many and inefficient procedures, to an inefficient use of the court system and potentially to over deterrence. 8 however, in the context of public law, courts have a primary duty to undertake judicial review of all governmental actions. Therefore, it would not be appropriate for courts to refuse to determine such issues because of absence of locus standi. 9 one of the basic characteristic features of pil is the relaxation of the locus standi rule for the petitioner wherein any public spirited person can on behalf of certain sections of society file a suit against the wrongdoer generally an industry and the state machinery in order so that the court can direct the state for implementation of the order. It has been seen the poor and the under privileged are unwilling to assert their rights because of poverty, ignorance or the fear of social or economic retaliations from the dominant sections of the society, lack of information, high transaction costs, etc.

These disabilities are considerably reduced if the law allows a concerned citizen to sue on behalf of the poor in a court of law. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays in india, where the government enforcement machinery is said to be lax, court involvement is indispensable in ensuring due action is taken. The legislature determines ambient quality standards which are the desired standards of pollution control. Now how do we enforce this among the polluters? the cheapest solution is to use private law remedies like nuisance, tort or, in rare environmental cases, contract law. Shavell 11 however, gives many reasons why private enforcement of these standards may not work: the damage may be too widespread as a result of which the individual damage for every victim is too low. 12 therefore no individual victim would want to litigate rational choice theory.

Moreover, especially in the environmental case, there can be causation problems and the time laps between the emission and the actual occurrence of harm can be long the so called latency problem as a result of which a private law suit may never be brought. 13 in addition insolvency problems can arise polluters can sometimes not be identified etc. 14 for all of these reasons there is, in principle, a strong case for public enforcement of environmental standards. The relaxation of the locus standi rule will help in coping with the problem of rational apathy. Though the litigant may still have other considerations such as gaining a positive name and repute in the society or there could be several other reasons such as genuine concern for the society, eagerness to learn the judicial process along with helping the society, etc.

Generally also, each party is differentially affected with pollution some more and some less. The pollutant may identify potential litigants and compensate them separately, thus leaving others at an economically disadvantageous position. Empirical data 15 has indicated that class action suits were often not initiated in the specific case of india more particularly because of the high transaction costs for the group to get organized and thus leading the players in holding out resulting in the free rider problem. 16 one of the major deterrent factors for a person filing pil is the cost of filing the suit which includes cost of filing, drafting, appearance charges of attorneys, etc. This has been considerably reduced as even letters to chief justices can act as a petition. The procedure for adjudication of pil is not stringent as in the case of civil suits. Even if a lawyer is necessary, the court would provide the attorney at the state's expense.

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Therefore, such measure reduces the deterrent factor of cost of filing the pil to a great extent. Another deterrent factor for pil is filing of frivolous pils or pils for furthering private or vested interests. A useful way of tackling this could be to offer economic disincentives in the form of penalties to those who are found to use pil for vested purposes. Supreme court of india has been cautious and has now become very strict in dealing with vexatious pils and has started imposing exemplary costs on litigants coming to serve private interests. 19 courts in hong kong have held that public interest litigations are 'costs incidental to good administration' and hence they should be adequately incentivised and protected.

20 so long as it can be seen that the pil is not totally frivolous and there was indeed a chance of success, courts refrain from imposing penalty. 22 as we are always expanding we are looking to grow our team of freelance writers. To find out more about writing with us then please check our freelance writing jobs page.