The Case that Felled a City: Examining the Politics of Indian Public Interest Litigation through One Case

Abstract

In the last three decades, Delhi, just like many other cities globally, has seen massive changes in its political economy, with a move from industry to services. What marks Delhi’s dislocations as distinct however is their source and their basis—they are based not on administrative or municipal policy or executive directions, but on judicial directions in cases of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) concerning pollution in the city. The spectacular efficacy of PIL in carrying out such a role, I will argue in this paper, can be explained not only by the external ideological trends prevailing during this time period, but also by the peculiar nature of PIL itself as a fundamentally unstable and endlessly malleable jurisdiction.