To curb the tendency of filing frivolous PILs by unscrupulous elements, the Supreme Court has laid down several important guidelines to be observed by the courts before taking them up.

A bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma has laid down an eight point guideline which includes that the courts should prima facie verify the credentials of the petitioner before entertaining a PIL.

Justice Bhandari, writing the 109-page judgement for the bench, however, made it clear that the court was not against the concept of PIL. ‘The courts must encourage genuine and bona fide PILs and effectively discourage and curb the PILs filed for extraneous considerations.

The courts should ensure that the PIL is aimed at redressal of genuine public harm or public injury.’ There should be no personal gain, private motive or oblique motive behind filing the PIL, the court said.

Petitions filed by busy bodies for extraneous and ulterior motives must be discouraged by imposing exemplary costs or by adopting novel methods, it added.

The apex court also directed all the High Courts in the country to frame their own rules to check the menace of bogus PILs and directed the Supreme Court registry to send a copy of the judgement to the Registrar General of all the High court’s within one week and fixed May 3 for compliance of the apex court order.

The court imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner in the Uttarakhand High Court, namely, Balwant Singh Chausal and others who had challenged the appointment of L P Nathani as the Advocate General of Uttrakhand.

UNI