FROM JUDICIAL ACTIVISM TO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: THE TRANSFORMATIVE ROLE OF PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) IN INDIA

Author Name: 1. Mranali Saxena

Volume/Issue: 06/12

Country: India

DOI NO.: 08.2020-25662434 DOI Link: https://doi-ds.org/doilink/06.2026-77554199/UIJIR

Affiliation:

1. Practicing Advocate, District and Sessions Court, Udaipur, India

ABSTRACT

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has emerged as one of the most transformative juristic Innovation since the history of Indian constitutional law. Born out of judicial activism in the late 1970s and early 1980s, PIL has fundamentally restructured the relationship between the citizen, the State, and the judiciary. Nowhere has its impact been more profound, and more consequential, than in the domain of environmental law.Over the past four decades, the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts have leveraged the PIL mechanism to carve out an expansive, living body of environmental jurisprudence that has not only enriched the domestic legal order but has also attracted international academic attention.

Key words: Public Interest Litigation (PIL), Environmental Jurisprudence, Judicial Activism, Environmental Governance, Constitutional Law, Sustainable Development, Access to Justice, Environmental Protection.