The Government of Kerala through official gazette published the Rules of High Court of Kerala (Second Amendment) 2023 regulating the Public Interest Litigations (PILs)on June 13th 2023.
The amendments are:
All Petitions, Affidavits, Memoranda of appeal and other proceedings presented to the having thickness not less than 75 GSM, with page set up and style of text as follows,—
Left and Right margin : 3.5 cm
Top and bottom margin : 2 cm
Justification : Full
Font : Times New Roman
Font size : 14
Line spacing : 1.5
Numbers shall be expressed in figures. Wherever exhibits imprinted on larger size papers are reduced to A4 size while taking photocopies, such copies shall be legible”;
(ii) after sub-rule (7), the following sub-rule shall be inserted, namely:—
“(8) Interlocutory Applications for impleading additional petitioner/plaintiff or respondent/defendant in cases shall contain the full name, age, residence, address anddescription of the parties sought to be impleaded either as petitioner/plaintiff or as respondent/defendant, which shall be shown in the cause title itself. “Ihis Rule shall apply to impleading petitions filed in appeals also.”;
(2) in rule 51, after sub-rule (2), the following sub-rule shall be inserted, namely:—
“(3) In addition to other modes of service, the Court may issue notice to the parties through electronic mode:
Provided that where process is ordered by the Court through electronic mode, the petitioner/ appellant shall furnish digital copy of the entire papers and e-mail addresses of the respondents. “
2. (i) the existing rule 146A shall be renumbered as rule 146AA;
(ii) before rule 146AA as so renumbered, the following rule shall be inserted, namely:—
146A. Details in Public Interest Litigation.—The pleadings in a Public Interest Litigation shall contain the details of all earlier Public Interest Litigations, if any, filed by the petitioner, which shall include case number, name of the Court, status and brief description of the order/judgment passed and costs, if any, awarded or imposed for or against the petitioner. “;
(iii) after Rule 146AA, the following rules shall be inserted, namely:—
146AB. The pleadings in a Public Interest Litigation shall clearly state as to whether it is filed on behalf of a class of persons and if so, it shall indicate the details of persons for whose benefit the Public Interest Litigation is filed.
146AC. If the petitioner in a Public Interest Litigation is a society or association of persons, the petitioner shall produce a true copy of the resolution passed by such society or association of persons, authorising the filing Of such a Public Interest Litigation. A copy of the bye-laws of the said society or association of persons shall also be annexed to the Public Interest Litigation.
146AD. The pleadings in a Public Interest Litigation shall state as to whether the petitioner has given any representation to a competent authority and if so, a copy of the same and the reply, if any, received from that authority shall also be annexed to the Public Interest Litigation.
Apart from the notification, an explanatory note was provided. However it’s not a part of the notification.
The intention of the notification is that, the High Court of Kerala after considering the decision of the Supreme Court in the case State of Uttarachal V. Balwant Singh Chaufal and the ‘Rules to regulate the Public Interest Litigations filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India framed by the High Court of Madras’ decided to incorporate some more provisions to regulate Public Interest Litigations in the Rules of the High Court of Kerala, 1971.
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