Allahabad High court expressed displeasure over the practice of filing PILs (Public Interest Litigation) by law students in the High Court based on their internship projects and later abandoning the cases, It further stated that the Court cannot be used as a dumping ground for pushing all such internship reports.
The Bench is headed by Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Piyush Agrawal further said:
“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. 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.”
The bench was dealing with a similar petition brought by law students belonging to indifferent semesters from various universities and law colleges. According to the petition’s pleadings, they had joined the Human Rights Legal Network Office in Prayagraj for their Winter internship, and during their project, they prepared reports after visiting various locations to investigate the ICDS scheme. The Court also emphasized that the Human Rights Legal Network, Prayagraj was equally accountable for such incidents because the petitioners had completed their Winter internship under its supervision alone.
Noting that this is not an isolated case and that during the summer and winter vacations, this Court is flooded with public interest litigation filed by students from various colleges who visit Prayagraj for internships, 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 scheduled a hearing on May 12 for a continuation of the case.
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