SC for framing fresh guideline on PIL

"Who will protect the rights of the common man if the executive does not do its duty," asked the Supreme Court while justifying judicial intervention and favouring fresh guidelines for entertaining PILs. The court also came down heavily on hospitals and corporate houses which, after securing land at concessional rates for welfare purposes, cheat people by not adhering to their mandate. "Nobody is prepared to protect the common man's right. Who will protect the rights of common man if the executive does not do its duty," said a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan on Wednesday. "When authorities are not taking action, who will take the action. Do you expect that a common man who is denied admission in a hospital will go to Chief Minister with a complaint," the Bench, also comprising Justices R V Raveendran and M K Sharma, said. The remarks of the Bench are in contrast with a recent observation of another two-member Bench which warned against "judicial activism and overreach" on the ground that the judiciary should not stray into the executive's domain. Seeing nothing wrong in court's taking up PILs, the Chief Justice sought the assistance of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and senior advocate Fali S Nariman, for framing new guidelines on matters related to public welfare. The court referred to complaints in which students are cheated by educational institutions in connivance with state governments and poor patients are not admitted by hospitals, allotted land at a throw-away price on the condition that they shall reserve 30 percent beds for weaker sections of society. The court's remarks came during the hearing of two PILs referred to it by another Bench. The two PILs dealt with issues related to rehabilitation of sex workers and providing facilities to disabled persons. These were referred to the Chief Justice by another bench, in light of the observations on "judicial over-reach" made by a bench of Justices A K Mathur and Markandey Katju in December last year. Expressing the need for taking up matters related to the common man, the Bench said there have been instances where land allotted for public welfare was misused and the authorities had failed to take action. It said "Corporate houses are given land for public purpose with a locking period of five years during which it cannot be sold. However, ignoring all rules they sell them for crore of rupees," the Bench said, holding that in such cases judicial intervention becomes necessary. The Chief Justice recalled the PIL relating to introduction of CNG-run public transport buses in the Capital and said every possible objections were made to stall the conversion of the fleet but court's monitoring helped in achieving the target. Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh said there were substance in the two-judge Bench's earlier observations that judiciary should refrain from interfering into the domain of executive and legislature. However, the Bench, which ruled out any interference in the judgement containing the observations made by Justice Katju, said the issue relating to laying down of guidelines for PIL will be taken in August. However, it declined the request from some advocates that the PIL issue be referred to the Constitution Bench. It accepted the request that the matter which was referred to the Chief Justice be taken up separately in May. The first PIL taken up the Bench on Wednesday was filed by an NGO, Prajwal, in 2004 for seeking measures for rehabilitation of sex workers. Advocate Aparana Bhat informed the Bench that the NGO and the government were working together and on 80 percent of the issues there have been agreement. The second PIL that came up before the Bench was relating to the implementation of the rules for preferential allotment of shops and houses to disabled persons.

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