14 of 25 HCs registered a decline in pending PILs in 2021, shows data

Overall, they cleared 83.7 per cent of instituted cases until August 2021- the highest in four years

Although the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) as an instrument was introduced as a much-needed measure in the 1980s—until then only the aggrieved party could file a case—over the last two decades, governments and the court have made several comments about the growing menace of frivolous PILs.

In June, a vacation bench of Justices BR Gavai and Hima Kohli had remarked that “we highly deprecate the practice of filing such frivolous PIL as it is nothing but abuse of the process of the law. They encroach upon valuable judicial time which could otherwise be utilised for considering genuine concerns. It is