DW BUREAU / Patiala

Through a research of the Department of Law, Punjabi University, Patiala, it has been studied that how the role of Public Interest Litigation (Public Interest Litigation) has been in the field of law so far.

Through this research conducted by researcher Aman Kaur under the leadership of Prof. Sukhdarshan Singh Khaira, various theoretical and practical aspects related to Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and related facts have been studied.

Prof. Sukhdarshan Singh Khaira told that before the 1980s, only those persons or parties who were directly involved in the concerned incident or who had been directly harmed or hurt, were able to go to court to seek justice. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer and Justice P. N. Bhagwati pioneered a major change in this field. They modified the doctrine of locus standi in such a way that the law became easily accessible to the weaker and poorer sections of the society.

He said that the main goal of the PIL is to protect the rights of economically and socially downtrodden people. PILs have played an important role in bringing justice to women, children, physically challenged persons and prisoners whose rights have been violated by wealthy individuals, government officials and government negligence. There are many statistics on the role of public interest petitions in bringing about many reforms for the interests of workers, conservation and protection of the environment. He said that through the study, one another aspect also came out that during the recent years, some people have also misused public interest petitions for their personal benefit instead of the benefit of the general public.
(editor@dailyworld.in)