"PIL was a tragedy to begin with and overtime became a dangerous farce", says @anujbhuwania in this fascinating book. His critique is primarily rooted in PILs' dispensation of process, giving unfettered power to judges to implement their personal world view in name of justice. 
And this is empirically shown through various cases, ranging from vehicular pollution matters, slum demolition, environment issues etc, where some judges got to enforce their views on 'social good', at the cost of fundamental rights of individuals,mostly marginalized.
Examples of such orders passed, without hearing the affected parties, are cited. The PILs are driven by few judges and few influential lawyers, who are appointed as amicus curiae.
Bhuwania shows that the process was inherently flawed, always carrying seeds of disaster within.
Bhuwania shows that the process was inherently flawed, always carrying seeds of disaster within.
"The problem with PIL is not just that it increasingly leads to unjust outcomes because of the changed ideological climate, but that it can so easily do so because of its diminution of judicial process", he says.
Since there are no constraints of process, the judges get dangerous powers to act on their predilections, unchecked by procedural safeguards.
"PIL with the kind of power it vests in judges which actually empowers them to act on their biases (aesthetic, anti-poor or otherwise) and that too with a free hand in a most expansive manner, unconstrained by technicalities and rules of adjudication", he says.
This is a must read to understand the politics behind PILs and their impacts. The general academic discourse doesn't go beyond the celebrated PILs. This seminal work exposes the ground impact of many headline making PILs.
Hope there will be a sequel to this, examining some recent PIL trends, such as use of 'ambush PILs' to secure legitimacy in politically sensitive issues.
