HC formulates new PIL rules

If police refuse to register an FIR, one can write to the Gujarat high court, which will treat such complaints as public interest litigations and act on them.
This is one of 20-odd issues to be treated as PILs by the high court as per the recently formulated Gujarat high court public interest litigation rules.

In its guidelines to curb frivolous litigations by vested interests, the high court has decided to give more importance to complaints that are sent to the court to solve issues to which the administration does not pay any heed to.
Besides refusal of police to lodge complaints, police harassment and custodial deaths too could be treated as grounds for filing PILs. Other important issues covered are complaints and petitions regarding bonded labour, neglected children, non-payment of minimum wages to workers, exploitation of casual workers and harassment of prisoners or for seeking release after having served a jail term of 14 years. Interestingly, the high court will also consider a complaint on slow pace of a trial as PIL. The court will treat complaints and petitions against atrocities on women, in particular harassment of brides, bride burning, rape, murder and kidnapping as PILs.
Complaints from people belonging to SC/ST and economically backward classes of harassment or torture of villagers by other villagers or by police or by co-villagers will be taken up by the court as PILs. Petitions or letters pertaining to environmental pollution, disturbance of ecological balance, drugs and food adulteration, maintenance of heritage and culture, antiquities, forest and wildlife will also be treated as PILs.

RELEVANT ISSUES

A locality deprived of power or water supply

Sanitation

Problems relating to health hazards etc.

Issues of riot victims

Natural disasters