Allahabad HC Frowns Upon Law Students 'Flooding' Court With PILs Based On Internship Projects, Failure To Pursue Case Thereafter

Referring to the practice of law students filing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) pleas in the High Court based on their internship projects and thereafter not pursuing the matters, the Allahabad High Court recently frowned upon such students as it remarked that the Court can't be made a dumping ground for pushing all such internship reports.

The Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Piyush Agrawal further opined that Universities - law colleges, that assign these kinds of projects to the law students, are equally responsible for such cases.

This observation came from the bench while dealing with one such petition filed by the students of law in different Universities and law colleges. The Court noted that when the petition was filed, they were studying in different semesters.

As per pleadings in the petition, they had joined Human Rights Legal Network Office at Prayagraj for their Winter internship and as a part of their project, they visited certain places to examine the ICDS scheme, prepared a report, and filed the present petition on the basis thereof.

However, noting that though the petition was filed in this Court, subsequent thereto, the petitioners had never followed it up, the Court remarked thus:

"It seems that they were interested only to secure certain marks for preparation of reports during their internship. The Court cannot be made a dumping ground for pushing all these reports and filing a petition on the basis thereof, when the petitioners, who filed this petition in person, are not available to assist this Court properly to take issues to the logical end."

The Court also stressed that Human Rights Legal Network, Prayagraj was equally responsible for such cases as under its guidance only, the petitioners had done their Winter internship.

Further noting that this is not a case in isolation and in fact, during Summer or Winter, this Court is flooded with public interest litigation filed by the students of different colleges, who visit Prayagraj during these vacations for their internship, the Court, decided to issue notice to the following:

1. Human Rights Legal Network, Prayagraj,

2. Mr. Prabal Pratap, Advocate,

3. Mr. Charlie Prakash, Advocate,

4. Chanakya National Law University, Bihar, through its Vice Chancellor,

5. Bharati Vidyapeeth, Bharati Vidyapeeth Bhavan, Pune, Maharashtra, through its Principal, and

6. SVKM's NMIMS University, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, through its Vice-Chancellor.

With this, the Court posted the matter for further hearing on May 12.

Interestingly, 6 days after the court issued the abovesaid order, the Court came across a similar petition filed by the students during their summer internship, raising certain issues in the public interest.

The Court noted that they had appeared only on two dates of hearing and have not pursued the present petition thereafter. In view of this, the Court listed the plea along with the above-mentioned matter as it observed thus:

"This Court is flooded with these types of petitions filed by the students during their internship. The Universities/Colleges, in which they are studying, need to examine the system and not flood the Courts with these types of petitions."

Case title - Nishant Chandra and others v. Union of India and others

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