TMI Blog2006 (7) TMI 729X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 02. According to the appellant, she was permitted to take part in the auction on 23.12.2002 but subsequently she was not allowed to participate and with a view to favour respondent No. 5, who was politically well connected, in a mala fide manner the auction was held. A writ petition was filed styled as PIL for direction to the authorities for investigating into the alleged irregularities. The High Court noted that one Mohd. Iqbal was the successful bidder who was not a party in the PIL. In any event, the appellant cannot file the PIL when she herself claimed to be an intending bidder. The writ petition was accordingly dismissed. In support of the appeal, it has been submitted that the High Court errone outlay proceeded on a highly technical basis without appreciating that the public interest was involved, the State's largess was being given for a very paltry amount and, therefore, writ application should not have been dismissed. 3. Learned counsel for the respondents on the other hand supported the order stating that the High Court rightly observed that the petition though styled as a PIL was nothing but an attempt to misguide the Court. There was no public interest invol ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 994)6SCC620 . 5. It is necessary to take note of the meaning of expression 'public interest litigation'. In Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, Volume 4 (IV Edition), 'Public Interest' is defined thus: Public Interest (1) a matter of public or general interest does not mean that which is interesting as gratifying curiosity or a love of information or amusement but that in which a class of the community have a pecuniary interest, or some interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected. 6. In Black's Law Dictionary (Sixth Edition), public interest is defined as follows: Public Interest something in which the public, or some interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected. It does not mean anything the particular localities, which may be affected by the matters in question. Interest shared by national government.... 7. In Janata Dal case (supra) this Court considered the scope of public interest litigation. In para 52 of the said judgment, after considering what is public interest, has laid down as follows: The expression 'litigation' means a legal action including all proceedings therein initiated in a Co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rievances go unnoticed, un-represented and unheard; yet we cannot avoid but express our opinion that while genuine litigants with legitimate grievances relating to civil matters involving properties worth hundreds of millions of rupees and criminal cases in which persons sentenced to death facing gallows under untold agony and persons sentenced to life imprisonment and kept in incarceration for long years, persons suffering from undue delay in service matters - government or private, persons awaiting the disposal of cases wherein huge amounts of public revenue or unauthorized collection of tax amounts are locked up, detenu expecting their release from the detention orders etc. etc. are all standing in a long serpentine queue for years with the fond hope of getting into the Courts and having their grievances redressed, the busybodies, meddlesome interlopers, wayfarers or officious interveners having absolutely no public interest except for personal gain or private profit either of themselves or as a proxy of others or for any other extraneous motivation or for glare of publicity break the queue muffing their faces by wearing the mask of public interest litigation and get into the Co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and ethnic minorities and others. 11. The Court has to be satisfied about (a) the credentials of the applicant; (b) the prima facie correctness or nature of information given by him; (c) the information being not vague and indefinite. The information should show gravity and seriousness involved. Court has to strike balance between two conflicting interests; (i) nobody should be allowed to indulge in wild and reckless allegations besmirching the character of others; and (ii) avoidance of public mischief and to avoid mischievous petitions seeking to assail, for oblique motives, justifiable executive actions. In such case, however, the Court cannot afford to be liberal. It has to be extremely careful to see that under the guise of redressing a public grievance, it does not encroach upon the sphere reserved by the Constitution to the Executive and the Legislature. The Court has to act ruthlessly while dealing with imposters and busybodies or meddlesome interlopers impersonating as public-spirited holy men. They masquerade as crusaders of justice. They pretend to act in the name of Pro Bono Publico, though they have no interest of the public or even of their own to protect. 12. C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al brain or force behind such cases would get exposed to find out the truth and motive behind the petition. Whenever such frivolous pleas, as noted, are taken to explain possession, the Court should do well not only to dismiss the petitions but also to impose exemplary costs. It is also noticed that petitions are based on newspaper reports without any attempt to verify their authenticity. As observed by this Court in several cases newspaper reports do not constitute evidence. A petition based on unconfirmed news reports, without verifying their authenticity should normally be entertained. As noted above, such petitions do not provide any basis for verifying the correctness of statements made and information given in the petition. It would be desirable for the Courts to filter out the frivolous petitions and dismiss them with costs as afore- stated so that the message goes in the right direction that petitions filed with oblique motive do not have the approval of the Courts. 14. In S.P. Gupta v. Union of India [1982]2SCR365 , it was emphatically pointed out that the relaxation of the rule of locus standi in the field of PIL does not give any right to a busybody or meddlesome inte ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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