Public Interest Litigation in India : Overreaching or Underachieving?
Public interest litigation has historically been an innovative judicial procedure for enhancing the social and economic rights of disadvantaged and marginalized groups in India. In recent years, however, a number of criticisms of public interest li...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20091103104346 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4298 |
| Summary: | Public interest litigation has
historically been an innovative judicial procedure for
enhancing the social and economic rights of disadvantaged
and marginalized groups in India. In recent years, however,
a number of criticisms of public interest litigation have
emerged, including concerns related to separation of powers,
judicial capacity, and inequality. These criticisms have
tended to abstraction, and the sheer number of cases has
complicated empirical assessments. This paper finds that
public interest litigation cases constitute less than 1
percent of the overall case load. The paper argues that
complaints related to concerns having to do with separation
of powers are better understood as criticisms of the impact
of judicial interventions on sector governance. On the issue
of inequality, the analysis finds that win rates for
fundamental rights claims are significantly higher when the
claimant is from an advantaged social group than when he or
she is from a marginalized group, which constitutes a social
reversal, both from the original objective of public
interest litigation and from the relative win rates in the 1980s. |
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