Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Tuesday flagged what he called the “mushroom growth” of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions. He said the trend has become a matter of concern for the Court.
The CJI made the observation during the hearing of a matter on Tuesday. He noted that certain “prominent persons” seem to have turned it into a routine. According to him, they scan newspapers in the morning and file petitions by the evening.
“We are on the mushroom growth of PILs. Looks like there are some prominent faces now whose only agenda is to read the newspaper in the morning and file a petition by evening,” Chief Justice Surya Kant said.
The Court’s remarks also echoed an earlier warning from the Supreme Court in a 2022 judgment. In that decision, the Court commented on the rising number of PILs filed without genuine public interest. It observed that many such petitions were, in substance, “publicity interest litigations” or “personal interest litigation”.
In the same 2022 judgment, the Supreme Court strongly criticised frivolous PILs and called them an “abuse of process of law”. The Court said such petitions consume valuable judicial time that could otherwise go to genuine matters. It added that it was “high time” such so-called PILs were “nipped in the bud”, so that developmental activities undertaken in the larger public interest do not get stalled.
