Pilfering citizens rights
prime Minister (pm) H D Deve Gowda has done it again. During the chief ministers' and power ministers' meet in mid-October 1996, Gowda had questioned the usage of public interest litigations (pil) and had said, "Whether they are public interest litigations or political interest litigations, I don't know.' Recently, that is, only four months after this statement, the United Front (uf) government has placed before the Cabinet a draft bill severely limiting the use of pils. According to observers, this bill would surely spell doom for environmental litigation in the country.
On February 19, law minister Ramakant Khalap went on to state that the Centre is considering some steps to curb profligacy in pils as they are "choking' the legal system, and as almost every decision of the government is being challenged in courts all over the country. Reacting sharply to this, erstwhile Chief Justice of India, A M Ahmadi, said that the judiciary would not tolerate such a step. Although Ahmadi admitted that many have tried to abuse pils for gaining publicity, the court should be taking care of such situations. "Access to justice cannot be denied on grounds of economic constraints, illiteracy or ignorance,' he contended. The bill, which currently awaits the Cabinet's clearance, has asked for a mandatory interest-free deposit of Rs 1 lakh for every pil to be placed in the Supreme Court (sc) and Rs 50,000 for pils to be placed before high courts (hc). The deposit shall be refunded at the discretion of the court if the petitioner wins the case. However, it can be forfeited if the petition is dismissed.