Every PIL will now be scrutinised by CJI

The days of waving a newspaper in the courtroom to prove a point, as often seen in Hindi movies, are over.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) SH Kapadia introduced fresh guidelines on Monday to do away with the menace of frivolous public interest litigations (PILs).

Now on, CJI will scrutinise every PIL and mark it to one of the benches only if he is satisfied that the petition holds substantial water.

The aim is to save the court’s precious time and prevent harassment of innocents, since PILs are often used to settle personal scores.

Before Monday’s directive, PILs were either heard by CJI or submitted to the Supreme Court registry, which marked it to a bench.

Kapadia had made it clear soon after becoming CJI in May that heavy penalties would be imposed on people filing frivolous PILs.
Earlier, hearing a set of PILs as part of a three-judge bench, he said, “The Supreme court has no power to interfere in policy matters. We will not interfere as there are certain implications. We can’t interfere in governance. The Supreme Court cannot solve all problems, such as the need for toilets, etc. We will not entertain any PIL merely on [the basis of] newspaper reports without going to the authorities and getting their response.”

On a petition demanding 33% reservation for women, Kapadia said, “We don’t have the right to give a direction to parliament to enact a law. How can we increase women’s reservation in parliament?”

In another PIL, Qatar-based NRI Ahammed Adyottil said the government had proposed a bill to provide voting rights to NRIs, but it had not been introduced in parliament yet.
When his counsel said some countries permitted voting rights to NRIs, Kapadia said, “Our law does not allow this. It is for the government to decide by making a law to grant the right to vote.”