Directions in order to preserve the purity and sanctity of the PIL

(1) “The courts must encourage genuine and bona fide PIL and effectively discourage and curb the PIL filed for extraneous considerations”.

(2) “Instead of every individual judge devising his own procedure for dealing with the public interest litigation, it would be appropriate for each High Court to properly formulate rules for encouraging the genuine PIL and discouraging the PIL filed with oblique motives.”

(3) “The courts should prima facie verify the credentials of the petitioner before entertaining a PIL.”

(4) “The court should be prima facie satisfied regarding the correctness of the contents of the petition before entertaining a PIL.”

(5) “The court should be fully satisfied that substantial public interest is involved before entertaining the petition.”

(6) “The court should ensure that the petition which involves larger public interest, gravity and urgency must be given priority over other petitions.”

(7) “The courts before entertaining the PIL should ensure that the PIL is aimed at redressal of genuine public harm or public injury. The court should also ensure that there is no personal gain, private motive or oblique motive behind filing the public interest litigation.”

(8) “The court should also ensure that the petitions filed by busybodies for extraneous and ulterior motives must be discouraged by imposing exemplary costs or by adopting similar novel methods to curb frivolous petitions and the petitions filed for extraneous considerations.”

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Haider Ajaz