Public Interest Litigation: The term "Public Interest" means the larger interests of the public, general welfare and interest of the masses ((Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edn.) Vol.Xll) and the Word “Litigation” means "a legal action including all proceedings therein, initiated in a court of Law with the purpose of enforcing a right or seeking a remedy." Thus, the expression `Public Interest Litigation' means "any litigation conducted for the benefit of public or for removal of some public grievance." In simple words, public interest litigation means. Any public spirited citizen can move/approach the court for the public cause (or public interest or public welfare) by filing a petition in the Supreme Court under Art.32 of the Constitution or in the High Court under Art.226 of the Constitution or before the Court of Magistrate under Sec. 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
In Indian law, public interest litigation means litigation for the protection of the public interest. It is litigation introduced in a court of law, not by the aggrieved party but by the court itself or by any other private party. It is not necessary, for the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction, that the person who is the victim of the violation of his or her right should personally approach the court. Public interest litigation is the power given to the public by courts through judicial activism. However, the person filing the petition must prove to the satisfaction of the court that the petition is being filed for a public interest and not just as a frivolous litigation by a busy body.
The seeds of the concept of public interest litigation were initially sown in India by Krishna Iyer J., In 1976 in Mumbai Kamgar Sabha vs. Abdul Thai (AIR 1976 SC 1455) and was initiated in Akhil Bharatiya Shoshit Karmachari Sangh (Railway) v. Union of India (AIR 1981 SC 298), wherein an Unregistered association of workers was permitted to institute a writ petition under Art.32 of the