HC reserves order on plea against Supreme Court Rules on PILs

The Delhi High Court today reseved its order on a plea challenging provisions of the Supreme Court's 2013 rules which require an advocate as well as a litigant to cite their annual income and PAN number while filing a PIL.
"We will consider your contention and pass an appropriate order. Order reserved," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said.
During the hearing, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who was asked by the court to take instruction from the Supreme Court Registry on the issue, informed the court that the apex court is already seized of a similar issue.

The petition, filed by a lawyer, had also challenged the rules which "require a litigant and a lawyer to appear before the Registrar (of the apex court) for interview to obtain a certificate for appearing and arguing before the court".
The petitioner lawyer, M L Sharma, had also submitted that a litigant can't be compelled to engage a lawyer to have access to the court.
He had contended that compelling a litigant to disclose annual income in the writ petition is "interference in the privacy of a individual's personal right" and it is "illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary".
The petition had sought quashing of the "rule to disclose annual income and PAN number in the writ (PIL) petition as arbitrary, illegal and mala fide and against the public interest and justice".