Public Interest Litigation: Vexatious and Frivolous Litigations

Public Interest Litigation has been in vogue in the country for nearly three decades. Public Interest Litigation has provided speedier remedy to the aggrieved. It is much less expensive and is short of procedural intricacies worried in an ordinary proceeding and is greater efficacious. PIL also serves the object of educating people. It facilitates access to courts and helps deprofessionalisation of the legal process. PIL has doubtless been a welcome improvement in Indian Public Law. The courts have taken a goal oriented approach in the interest of justice and performed an immense role in making the rights meaningful and accomplishing justice to the illiterate, impoverished and downtrodden. But PIL in India has been open to abuse. Public Interest Litigation has improved the problems of a docket congested registry. There are complaints from both bar and bench that too much court is spent on PIL at the cost of other instances which remain unheard for long intervals of time. Administrators and lawyers who are either opposed to PIL to it argued that there is already an astronomical rise in pending cases and consequently the acceptance of PIL into the judicial system should result in the eventual collapse of the judicial system in India.