Legal Research – Lawdiktat

A Primer on Public Interest Litigation and its Evolution

admin1 — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 17:49:07 +0000

1. Introduction

The articulation ‘Public Interest Litigation’ has been acquired from American jurisprudence. It was intended to give legal portrayal to already unrepresented bunches like poor people, racial minorities, disorderly shoppers, and enthusiastic residents about the ecological issues, and so forth. Legal action is required to protect “public interest,” such as preventing pollution or terrorism, ensuring the security of transportation, or preventing the risk of construction. Any matter where the interest of the public, in general, is impacted can be challenged by documenting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in a court of law. Public interest litigation isn’t characterized in any rule or in any demonstration. In the eyes of judges, the public’s objective has been comprehended. When the courts use their legal authority, it is known as legal activism. In any case, the individual recording the request should demonstrate as per the general inclination of the court that the appeal is being petitioned for public interest and not similarly as a frivolous litigation by a snoop. The court would itself be able to take insight of the matter and continue suo motu or cases can start on the appeal of any public vivacious person. (Surya Dave, Public Interest Litigation: A Critical Review, Civil Justice Quarterly, Vol. 28, pp. 19-40, 2009 available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1424236.)

A portion of the issues which are engaged under PIL are:

Reinforced Work matters
Disregarded Youngsters
Non-instalment of least wages to laborers and double-dealing of easy going specialists
Monstrosities on ladies
Natural pollution and aggravation of biological equilibrium
Food debasement
Upkeep of legacy and culture

2. Maintainability of PIL in India

(Rakesh Kumar, Public Interest Litigation, Volume-3, Issue-7, July-2014 available at https://www.worldwidejournals.com/global-journal-for-research-analysis-GJRA/recent_issues_pdf/2014/July/July_2014_1565265399_118.pdf. )

Throughout the long term, the courts in India have formed different standards with respect to PILs:

Relaxed rule of locus standi– PILs can be recorded by any individual for the government assistance of other people who are hindered and are subsequently incapable to move toward the actual courts. Consequently, the common principle of locus standi has been relaxed in instances of PILs to secure and shield the interests and privileges of these hindered individuals.
Relaxed procedural rules– Courts have treated even a letter or a wire as a PIL as on account of Rustic Case and Privilege Kendra, Dehradun versus Territory of Uttar Pradesh. Indeed, even the law with respect to pleadings has been relaxed by the courts in instances of PILs.
Intervention by the courts– Courts have likewise featured the way that Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and the Global Shows on Common liberties accommodate a fair and sensible preliminary. Along these lines, Courts should intercede when a bad form is done to many.
Question of practicality- The Public authority may not be permitted to bring up issues regarding the viability of the PIL assuming the court is prima facie fulfilled that there is a variety of any sacred freedoms of an impeded class of individuals.
Standard of Res Judicata– The guideline of res judicata or any standards undifferentiated from it would rely upon the conditions and realities of the case and the idea of the PIL.
Appointment of Commission– In extraordinary conditions, a court might designate a Commission or different bodies to explore. If the Commission assumes control over a public establishment, the Court might coordinate administration of it.
PILs in regards to lawfulness or legitimacy of a resolution or a legal rule– Usually, the High Court shouldn’t engage such an appeal via a PIL. Complete Equity Under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, the Hon’ble High Court of India has the optional ability to pass a declaration or request as might be important to do finish equity. Nonetheless, while high courts might pass requests to do finish equity, they don’t have abilities much the same as those conceded to the Hon’ble High Court under Article 142.
Abuse of PILs– Courts are incredibly mindful to guarantee that PILs are not abused as the abuse of PILs would nullify the very point for which it was considered for example to act the hero of poor people and the discouraged. On countless times, the courts have stressed this fact on account of Kushum Lata v. Association of India ( (2006) 6 SCC 180. ). Nonetheless, courts have held that regardless of whether the solicitor had moved toward the court for his own private interest because of his own complaints, the court might get it essential ask into the subject of the suit and its situation in assistance of public interest.
In the formulation of different concepts– In ecological regulation cases, the courts have figured out and advanced a few concepts including the Polluter Pays Guideline, the Prudent Rule, the Public Trust Precept, and the Economical Turn of events.

3. Landmark Judgements of PIL

Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (IR 1997 SC 3011.)

Bhanwari Devi, a member of the government’s anti-child marriage campaign in rural Rajasthan, tried to halt the marriage of a one-year-old girl. People in Bhanwari Devi’s neighborhood started harassing her and her family with threats and launching a socio-economic boycott. A group of five men attacked Bhanwari Devi on September 22, 1992, and raped her. When Bhanwari Devi pursued justice, she ran against a lot of roadblocks. Naina Kapur, a lawyer who had witnessed Bhanwari Devi’s criminal trial and was frustrated by the incapacity of the criminal justice system to provide tangible remedies and restore the victim’s dignity, decided to file a PIL in the Supreme Court to fight sexual harassment in the workplace.

Vishaka’s writ petition was brought in 1992 on behalf of five non-governmental organizations against the State of Rajasthan, its Women & Child Welfare Department, its Department of Social Welfare, and the Union of India. According to the Vishaka ruling, sexual harassment is “a clear violation” of basic constitutional rights and liberty. In order to protect and implement the right to gender equality in the workplace, the recommendations provided employers with a definition of “sexual harassment”, a list of methods for harassment prevention, and a description of complaint processes that should be “strictly observed in all workplaces.”

Javed v. State of Haryana (AIR 2003 SC 3057.)

Petitioner Javed challenged the legitimacy of a coercive population control rule that regulated the election of the panchayat. Under the new law passed by Haryana Government “A person who has more than two live children” was barred from holding certain positions in panchayats. In order to promote family planning, the two-child rule was established with the notion that other people would follow the example of limited reproduction set by their elected representatives.

Conclusion

Public Interest Litigation has produced astonishing results which were unthinkable three decades ago. Degraded bonded labourers, tortured under trials and women prisoners, humiliated inmates of protective women’s homes, blinded prisoners, exploited children, beggars, and many others have been given relief through judicial intervention. The greatest contribution of PIL has been to enhance the accountability of the governments towards the human rights of the poor.

The PIL develops a new jurisprudence of the accountability of the state for constitutional and legal violations adversely affecting the interests of the weaker elements in the community. However, the Judiciary should be cautious enough in the application of PILs to avoid judicial overreach that is violative of the principle of separation of power. Besides, the frivolous PILs with vested interests must be discouraged to keep their workload manageable.

Sidharth Rajan

Student Editor, LawDiktat

Student Spotlight : March 20, 2022

admin1 — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 09:56:23 +0000

I believe building a perspective in my journey of Law was a task in itself. Initially, I used to talk to seniors and friends to know and learn from their perspective in the field of law, which was not much of a good idea. I got mix responses, but the major suggestions were, to forget getting good Internship opportunities let aside securing placement in a good firm. I have had friends who would mock me for my passion and dream to work with renowned Law Firms/Lawyers. This continues till today.

Despite, all these negativities, what benefited me was the Pandemic. I ensured that I do my best sitting home. I tried to get maximum internships, tried various fields of law, wrote research papers and moreover, secured highest scores in my LLB Exams. On many instances I did doubt myself, but I sailed through it as I went with the flow.

I applied for Internships in advance and gave my best on every Internship. I personally feel that Legal profession has enough to feed every budding lawyer and your story won’t depend on what Mr. X or Mr. Y feel/ or has experienced in their times. Your college won’t matter, it’s just your zeal and your skills that will take you to heights.

Know someone who we should spotlight next or want to nominate yourself? Click here.

Impact of A.I. in the Indian legal system

admin1 — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 17:28:19 +0000

Recently, Justice DY Chandrachud inaugurated a paperless bench in Orissa High Court.[i] The transition of paperwork to virtual space is the reality now. Slowly Indian judiciary is adopting the method which will be beneficial in the legal space. Adopting Artificial Intelligence in the Indian legal system will surely bring revolution in the Indian judicial system. In this article, we will discuss Artificial Intelligence and its impact on the legal system.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The Oxford Dictionary defines Artificial Intelligence as “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages”.[ii] Some applications can only do simplified tasks, such as adding numbers and therefore do not deserve to be referred to be intelligent. Other programs, on the other hand, are capable of doing challenging tasks.

Specific robust Artificial Intelligence programs can be used for facial recognition while searching for criminals in public. Artificially intelligent programs can be used to process and analyze large amounts of written work to spoken and spoken word to written form and make the transcription process more constructive and optimized.

Utility of AI in the legal industry

Due diligence review

Traditionally lawyers used to go through multiple documents to find mistakes, which took time & a cumbersome task as well. With the advancement of AI, difficult tasks can be handled diligently and more accurately, minimizing the lawyer’s precious time. Nowadays, law firms use AI to review documents, execute tasks related to Banking, Mergers & Acquisition transactions, contract reviewing, drafting, etc. It helps to save the lawyer time to review the contract, the risk associated with the contractual agreement and helps in automatically finding out essential aspects from a contract that can help carry out due diligence.[iii]

Legal Research

We generally use SSC Online, Manupatra, Lexis Nexis, etc., legal researching tools for legal research in law school. These tools are very effective for new generation lawyers. Legal research needs hours of time to find out the complex solution. This issue is addressed by using AI software, which may substantially increase efficiency and accuracy; it saves time by providing relevant case laws with a single click, which can help judges in delivering timely judgments. AI Ross, developed by IBM, has adopted many law firms worldwide, particularly in the USA, and is primarily used to vet legal contracts, conduct legal research, briefly summarize case laws, etc. Likewise, Linklaters LLP, a multinational law firm, is also developing an AI program, Nakhoda, intending to provide effective contract management and structured legal data.[iv] Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is India’s first law firm to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse and improve contractual and other legal documents.[v]

Accurate Contractual analysis

Contract analysis is another time-consuming and complicated job performed by attorneys. Artificial intelligence-powered technologies, such as Natural Language Processing technology, may assist lawyers in expediting contract analysis, saving valuable time in the process. There are many technologies on the market now that do professional document analysis, extract essential information, and modify contracts to fulfil the needs of the client. From termination date to renewal date, what type of contract and notice can be sorted out quickly. In fact, Contract management and automated digital signature can be reviewed by AI.

AI in Competition law & Intellectual Property

The principal objects of Competition Law are to eliminate practices that may adversely affect the competition, promote competition in the market, protect the interest of the consumers, and ensure freedom of trade carried on by various participants in the market, with respect to the economic developments in the country. It is the imperative duty of the CCI to ensure that the conditions which have tendencies to kill the fair competition in the market are to be curbed. The CCI must ensure that the consumers reap the consequential benefits of healthy competition. Therefore, the CCI must address the competition concerns raised through technological developments, specifically AI’s ability to influence and predict demand and supply. AI has the ability to suggest conduct of pre-determined nature, which may invariably affect the competitive spirit of the market.[vi] Artificial intelligence is productive and contributes to giving information into IP, such as the search and registration of a trademark, patent, copyrights, etc.

Challenges of AI in the legal sector

Taking away of jobs

Lawyers and legal firms are concerned that Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning may threaten their survival, or, to put it another way, that Artificial Intelligence will replace lawyers. The jobs of office clerks, receptionists, customer service reps, analysts, marketers, doctors, attorneys, underwriters, and creative’s could be replaced by Al in the next decade. As Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, says, ―In the next decade, we will shift to a world that is AI-first.[vii]

Cyberattack

With each document submitted to the AI, there is a more significant threat of cyber attacks since such material may be vulnerable to hacking or theft. Unless cyber security is strengthened, using AI for data exchange or storage may pose a greater risk. The application of AI in cyber security poses greater concern. It is still unclear whether AI-enabled systems are subject to manipulation, such as data poisoning and adversarial examples, and how to best protect AI systems from malicious attacks.

Can it replace human brains?

Using AI in a criminal investigation such as detecting weapons, facial recognition, forensics, multimedia analysis, ballistics, and crime scene reconstruction enables us to transcend human mistakes and serve as experts. On the other hand, as criminal law is primarily concerned with human behavior, AI cannot be a straightjacket formula. Criminal law involves the commission of the act (actus reus), the mental state (mens rea); it needs a fair trial process to conclude, so it can never replace the human mind. Justice DY Chandrachud, in an interview, said, “The idea of Artificial Intelligence is not to supplant the human brain or the human mind or the presence of judges.”[viii]

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is our near future, and slowly it will be part of our legal sector. Technological advances will help the lawyer to work accurately & efficiently, and it will produce more quality of service to the client. AI in law has numerous benefits, from researching to Judges’ decision-making, predictive technology, data collection, and data review, etc. Though AI can bring revolutions in the legal industry in the future, it can never replace the creativity of the human mind as it lacks human intelligence and empathy. As AI is not wholly immune from vulnerabilities, cyber threats, data breaches, and data manipulation, AI’s complete inclusion in the legal industry is not desirable without a possible legal framework and privacy protection. We need to minimize the maximum risk to safeguard its benefit.

– Sahid Ahamad

(Content Writer, LawDIKTAT)

References

[i] ‘Justice Chandrachud Inaugurates Paperless Bench in Orissa High Court- The New Indian Express’ accessed 3 October 2021.

[ii] ‘ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | Definition of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.Com Also Meaning Of’ accessed 3 October 2021.

[iii] ‘How Kira Works’ accessed 28 October 2021.

[iv] Ananth Kini, ‘Artificial Intelligence and the Legal Profession: An “intelligent” Way Ahead?’ accessed 3 October 2021.

[v] Khushboo Narayan Shaji Vikraman, ‘“Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to Be Asia’s First Law Firm to Employ AI for Legal Work” | Business News,The Indian Express’ accessed 3 October 2021.

[vi] Sameer Gupta & Sankalp Udgata, ‘RETHINKING THE CONTOURS OF COMPETITION LAW: THE AI PERSPECTIVE’.

[vii] ‘Artificial Intelligence Will Take Your Job: What You Can Do Today To Protect It Tomorrow’ accessed 3 October 2021.

[viii] Interview with Justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud, ‘Reassessing Legal Processes through Artificial Intelligence’ accessed 3 October 2021.