PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN: INNOVATE APPROACHES TO REFUSE STANDING

Judicial system in the British India was adversarial, which required two litigant parties and an impartial judge to determine a legal issue. After independence, access to the higher courts was next to impossible for poor and disadvantaged people of India and Pakistan. To remove the procedural barriers, the Courts of both countries ventured to relax the rigid test of locus standi from an aggrieved party to a public spirited individual or a group fighting for social justice. Opening the flood gates of Public Interest Litigation risked its abuse, which was dubbed as Personal or Political Interest Litigation., the Indian Courts innovatively created new defense lines, insulating the new procedural phenomenon. The constitutional Courts of Pakistan went one step ahead of the Indian Courts and also closed their doors for abuse of the procedure.