Research for Public Interest Litigation

A drain near your railway station has been open for months, and every monsoon somebody slips in. A residents' group wants to go to court, but a judge will not act on anger; she will act on facts. Who is affected, which authority failed, what does the law require, and what exactly should the court order? Public interest litigation stands or falls on research, and this topic shows what to gather, where to find it, and how to put it in a petition a High Court will take seriously.

In two minutes

PIL research means proving, with documents and law, that a public wrong affects people who cannot easily come to court, identifying the authority responsible and the right violated, and asking for a specific, workable remedy.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Practical Training – II: Alternate Dispute Resolution on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.