SC to consider framing guidelines on PILs

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider laying down guidelines governing public interest litigation (PIL).

"It is better to have some guidelines whether these types of PILs can be entertained," said a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

The Chief Justice decided to address the issue when a PIL relating to rehabilitation of sex workers referred to it by a bench headed by Justice S B Sinha came up for hearing.

Justice Sinha had referred the matter in view of the observations made by the bench comprising Justices A K Mathur and Markandeya Katju and had said it was not clear what was the power of the court in dealing with PILs.


On Tuesday, the court found itself plagued by self-doubt over its power to entertain PILs when a bench of Justices Sinha and Bedi refused to hear a lawsuit by non-governmental organisation Prajawla on the legal status of sex workers. It referred the lawsuit to the bench of Chief Justice Balakrishnan, asking whether court benches were entitled at all to hear the PILs "in view of" Justice Katju's ruling. This also left Delhi High Court judges rattled as the ruling had either declared illegal or questioned the rationality of several recent judgements of the high court. The ruling has led to more than one bench of the high court refraining from hearing PILs during the week. The rancour in the judiciary reached the bench of Chief Justice Balakrishnan Thursday when counsel appearing for another PIL apprehended that the bench might not hear it at all owing to the "judicial activism" judgement.

However, the chief justice's bench observed that his was a three-judge bench and a two-judge bench ruling on "judicial activism" was not binding.

But even that failed to clear the confusion whether the ruling was not binding merely on three-judge benches of the court or not binding at all on any high court. While admitting the need to have an elaborate guideline for entertaining PILs, the bench of Chief Justice Balakrishnan adjourned the hearing on the PIL related to the conditions of sex workers for Feb 23.