PIL spike in corona times

Few governments in the world waited for court orders to mitigate peoples' sufferings

Public interest litigation (PIL), which peaked like corona gra­phs during the lockdown, was conceived by the Supreme Court judges in 1980 and immediately faced resistance from within. When an activist bench passed an order in a PIL, directing the Uttar Pradesh government to provide fans, lights and a decent toilet in an Agra resettlement home for wo­men, one strict constructionist brother-judge ridiculed the order in a public meeting: “It looks as if the Supreme Court is running the home.”

The orders in PILs in recent weeks would look as if the courts have taken over the Covid crisis management and the