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Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today, at the International Conference on Environmental Diversity and Environmental Jurisprudence, 2022 at Chandigarh University, said that as long as there is no frivolity in the case, there is no problem with publicity.

The judge was responding to a query as to how the courts decide what is "public interest" and what is "publicity interest" in Public Interest Litigations(PILs) and where do they draw the line?

Justice Grewal said that if the petitions filed are not frivolous, it does not matter whether the litigation is being done for publicity or not.

During his speech, the judge also highlighted the issue of judges being cornered for judicial overreach in present times. He said that often judges are criticized for interfering with the executive but sometimes governments also use PILs as a tool.

Justice Grewal said, " Sometimes PILs are filed which have the tacit support of the executive and the moment the court issues notice to the State, the State is ready and willing to immediately accept the notice."

"The directions of the court are used as a tool to clear the demonstrators which they could otherwise not do because it is a democratically elected government which doesn't want to upset its electorate," he added. 

The judge was addressing the Technical Session-4 of the two-day conference on the topic "PIL- A tool in the present time: A balanced outlook."

Justice Grewal also shared his experience with some of the PILs he dealt with as an Advocate and as a high court judge. He said, "When I was practicing as a lawyer in Punjab, there was an accident where four persons lost their lives in a car accident and it turned out that if the people had been wearing their seat belts they would have survived. I requested the high court to pass directions to make seat belts mandatory even for the passengers. Justice Swatantara Kumar passed the said directions but automobile companies claimed they don't have the resources."

Justice Grewal recollects how Justice Swatantara Kumar (Retd.) pulled up the automobile companies saying “Indian lives are being taken for granted.”

Apart from Justice Grewal, Justice Jyoti Singh of the Delhi High Court, and Judge of Sri Lanka Supreme Court Justice AHMD Nawaz also addressed the session. 

The two-day conference is being organized to emphasize on understanding and analyzing the potentials and threats faced by bio-diversity and to attain environmental Justice through sound regulatory mechanisms. This year's theme takes on the sustainable use of bio-diversity to assist Nation's growth while maintaining eco-system wellness and environmental Justice.

The conference also aims to sensitizing youth, professionals, social workers, community members, and people from all walks of life about Environmental Diversity and Environmental Jurisprudence as the need of the hour.