The phenomenon of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is a judicially crafted one and primarily consists of the constitutional court's expansion of fundamental rights on the one hand, and procedural innovations to create better opportunities for disadvantaged groups to gain access to the legal system on the other. It has created a renewed conception of justice, and has enabled the court to augment and validate its own authority as the ‘guardian’ of public welfare, and as the constitutionally appointed branch of the state to enforce the rights of the ‘public’. PIL at one level appears to have enabled the justice system and laws to define and shape social and political interactions and to channelize democratic pressures for gaining a response from the state. But it has also been a process by which law and justice emerge from social and political interaction. This new interaction between the realm of judicial decision making and state governance has created adjustments and adaptations and the creation of new legal acts, as well as systemic tensions and conflicts. The paper concludes by looking at broader questions that PIL generates for processes of civic participation, representative democracy and democratic polity under the constitution.
Type Articles Information Copyright © ICPHS 2015Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
Andhyarujina , TR ( 1992 ) Judicial Activism and Constitutional Democracy in India . Bombay : N. M. Tripathi .Google Scholar
Baxi , U ( 1985 ) Taking suffering seriously: social action litigation in the Supreme Court of India . Third World Legal Studies 4 : 107 – 132 .Google Scholar
Baxi , U ( 2007 ) The rule of law in India . IJHR 4 : 6 – 25 .Google ScholarBhagwati , PN ( 1985 ) Judicial activism and public interest litigation . Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 23 : 561 – 577 .Google Scholar
Bhagwati , PN ( 1988 ) Inaugural address by the Convenor . In Developing Human Rights Jurisprudence. The domestic application of international human rights norms . Commonwealth Secretariat : xx–xxiv.Google Scholar
Cunningham , C ( 1987 ) Public interest litigation in the Indian Supreme Court: a study in light of the American experience . Journal of the Indian Law Institute 29 : 494 – 523 .Google Scholar
Desai , A , Muralidhar , S ( 2000 ) Public interest litigation: potential and problems . In Kirpal , BN , et al . (eds) Supreme but not Infallible . New Delhi : Oxford University Press , pp. 159 – 192 .Google Scholar
Mate , M ( 2010 ) Two paths to judicial power: the basic structure doctrine and public interest litigation in comparative perspective . San Diego International Law Journal 12 ( 1 ): 175 – 222 .Google Scholar
Mehta , PB ( 2007 ) The rise of judicial sovereignty . J. Democracy 18 ( 2 ): 70 – 83 .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson , N ( 2009 ) Expanding judiciaries: India and the rise of the good governance court . Wash. U. Global Stud. Law Review 8 ( 1 ): 1 – 69 .Google Scholar
Tamanaha , BZ ( 1995 ) Review: The lessons of law and development studies . American Journal of International Law 89 ( 2 ): 470 – 486 .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trubek , D , Galanter , M ( 1974 ) Scholars in self estrangement: some reflections on the crisis in law and development studies in the United States . Wisconsin Law Review : 1062 – 1102 .Google Scholar
Unger , RM ( 1976 ) Law in Modern Society: Toward a Criticism of Social Theory . New York : Free Press .Google Scholar