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Ordinarily the right to move the court for judicial redressal, is available only
to those whose legal right has been infringed. This rule results in the denial
of justice to those, who because of their poverty or socially disadvantageous
position, are unable to approach the Court themselves for relief. To overcome
this problem the Supreme Court pioneered the concept of Public Interest
Litigation, which permits litigation by "public spirited persons" for the
enforcement of rights of any other person. In some cases Courts have taken suo
moto cognizance of "news" published in newspapers and treated them as petitions.
Even at times mere letters addressed to the Court have been treated as writ
petitions in cases of gross violation of fundamental rights.
The protagonists of conservative legal process have not been happy with this
trend and have given it the name "Judicial Activism". Impliedly one of the
important aspects of "judicial activism" is the intervention of the Courts, on
their own (suo moto), in any issue involving the violation of legal or
fundamental rights. This aspect refers to cases, where although no petition has
been filed in the Court, but still the Court steps into the matter so as to
prevent miscarriage of justice.
The landmark issue of the Best Bakery Case has once again highlighted the issue
of "judicial activism". This issue relates to the carnage of minorities in 2001,
in Gujarat. Zahira Sheikh, the only eye witness of the event, was forced to
withdraw her statement due to political pressure and intimidation. The lower
Court in Gujarat released all the 21 convicts of the case. But the Supreme Court
suo moto dismissed the orders of the Gujarat High Court and ordered fresh trials
of the case outside Gujarat, in Mumbai. This step was taken by the Supreme Court
at the request of a NGO named as "Citizens for Justice and Peace", which helped
Zahira Sheikh to resurface and give her statement. So through its intervention,
the Indian Courts have proved that judiciary is quite sensitive to miscarriage
of justice.
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