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How many Types of PIL are there?

By BYJU'S Exam Prep

Updated on: November 9th, 2023

There are Two Types of PIL namely Representative Social Action and Citizen Social Action. Public interest litigation is referred to as PIL. This kind of PIL enables any member of the public to request judicial redress for a legal wrong committed against a specific person or class of people who are unable to approach the court because of their socioeconomic disadvantage or poverty.

Table of content

1. Types of Public Interest Litigation (PIL)
2. How many Types of PIL are there?

Types of Public Interest Litigation (PIL)

An aggrieved party does not file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in court; rather, a private party or the court itself does so. Public Interest Litigation has developed into a powerful tool for upholding the legal obligations of the executive and the legislature. Read in detail about the two types of PIL.

Citizen Social Action

The cases in this group mark a departure from the conventional understanding of the courts as a venue for upholding individual rights.

In S.P. Gupta v. Union of India (1982), the Supreme Court ruled that anyone in public with a strong enough interest could claim “a diffuse, collective, and meta-individual right.”
In this type, a Petitioner brings a lawsuit on behalf of a public member who owns a public responsibility.
Because no traditional individual right exists, this form of PIL’s goal is to uphold rights disseminated throughout the public to be enforced, not to increase access to justice for the poor like a Representative Social Action.

Representative Social Action

In such a scenario, the petitioner is granted locus standi to file a lawsuit on behalf of another individual. These were when the court gave someone standing to file a lawsuit on behalf of a group of people when they could not do so on their own.

Summary: