1979: The first PIL petition
The HinduPublished : Aug 14, 2022 06:00 IST Public interest litigation petitions are cases filed in a court that highlight a public cause and seek to redress for those affected. Technically, the 1979 Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar was the first PIL petition though Justice Krishna Iyer spoke about it in the 1976 Mumbai Kamgar case SCC 832)). He noted: “Public interest is promoted by a spacious construction of locus standi in our socio-economic circumstances and conceptual latitudinarianism permits taking liberties where the remedy is shared by a considerable number, particularly when they are weaker.” For the next three decades plus, the PIL petition proved to be a path to justice in many landmark cases that took on State high-handedness or in cases where justice seemed a pipe dream. On December 1, 1988, a full court made certain modifications to the PIL rule, including that no petition involving individual/personal matters shall be entertained as a PIL, with some exceptions.