Question : PILs Pending in Courts

(a) the number of cases and PILs pending in various high courts and Supreme Court in the country, court-wise;
(b) the number of cases in the High Courts and Supreme Court which have been pending for more than 10 years along with the maximum duration of cases pending, court-wise;
(c) the details regarding the number of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed in the Supreme Court and various High Courts in the country over the last three years, court-wise and year-wise;
(d) whether the Government has taken cognizance of filing of frivolous litigations under the guise of PIL and if so, the details thereof; and
(e) whether the Government proposes to initiate action to check such frivolous litigations and if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW & JUSTICE AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS
(SH. P.P.CHAUDHARY)
(a), (b) and (c) No separate data is maintained by the Supreme Court, High Courts and National Judicial Data Grid in respect of PILs. The information as available on the website of Supreme Court and National Judicial Data Grid in respect of pending cases including PILs is as under-
S.No. Details No. of Cases Pending (including PILs) Number of cases pending for more than 10 years Data as on
1. Hon’ble Supreme Court 56994 -------- 01.12.2018
2. Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Allahabad 723415 276077











17.12.2018
3. Hon’ble Calcutta High Court 242846 91496
4. Hon’ble Guwahati High Court 40399 350
5. Hon’ble Bombay High Court 464074 145425
6. Hon’ble Chhatisgarh High Court 63047 6622
7. Hon’ble Delhi High Court 73672 8019
8. Hon’ble Gujarat High Court 113302 13633
9. Hon’ble Himachal Pradesh High Court 36116 1359
10. Hon’ble Jammu & Kashmir High Court 91715 10520
11. Hon’ble Jharkhand High Court 87937 15326
12. Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad 360262 46603
13. Hon’ble Karnataka High Court 235906 5907
14. Hon’ble Madhya Pradesh High Court 330075 63987
15. Hon’ble Manipur High Court 7697 1716
16. Hon’ble Meghalaya High Court 1029 0
17. Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court 393953 100714
18. Hon’ble Rajasthan High Court 739500 119837
19. Hon’ble Sikkim High Court 252 0
20. Hon’ble Tripura High Court 2912 1
21. Hon’ble Uttarakhand High Court 55463 22398
22. Hon’ble Madras High Court 398121 101727
23. Hon’ble Orissa High Court 169012 34813
24. Hon’ble Patna High Court 151169 21628

(d) and (e) The Hon’ble Supreme Court from time to time through its various judgments has observed that the Court must be careful to see that the member of the public, who approaches the court through Public Interest Litigation is acting bona fide and not for personal gain or private profit or political motivation or other oblique consideration and that the court must not allow its process to be abused. Public-interest litigation is a rule of declared law by the courts of record. However, the person (or entity) filing the petition must prove to the satisfaction of the court that the petition is being filed for the public interest and not as a frivolous litigation for pecuniary gain. The Supreme Court in the case of State of Uttaranchal vs. Balwant Singh Chaufal and others [CA No’s. 1134-35/2002], issued certain directions in order to preserve the purity and sanctity of the PIL. Further Rule 12(3) of Order No. XXXVII of the Supreme Court Rules 2013 provides that ‘The Court may impose exemplary costs on the petitioner (s) if it finds that the petition was frivolous or instituted with oblique or mala fide motive or lacks bona fides.’ Since Hon’ble Supreme Court has been issuing guidelines from time to time to put a check on these meaningless litigation, Government has no proposal to further interfere in such matter.