Question

The term “Public Interest Litigation (PIL)” was first used by:

• A. Justice P.N. Bhagwati
• B. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer
• C. Prof. Abram Chayes
• D. Prof. Upendra Baxi

Hint:

Always distinguish between the pioneers of PIL in India (Justice Bhagwati and Iyer) and the person who coined the term (Prof. Abram Chayes).

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

This question is really about the history of a phrase, not about who is famous for using it in Indian courtrooms.

1. Prof. Upendra Baxi: He has written a great deal on PIL and social action litigation in the Indian setting, and his scholarship shaped how PIL is understood here, but he did not coin the expression itself.
2. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer: His judgments helped loosen the strict rules on who could approach a court, letting public-spirited citizens raise the causes of the poor and voiceless. That is a judicial contribution to the practice of PIL in India, separate from naming the concept.
3. Justice P.N. Bhagwati: In much the same way, he is remembered for expanding access to constitutional courts through PIL, turning it into a powerful tool for social justice in India, again a contribution to practice rather than to terminology.
4. Prof. Abram Chayes: Before the term found its home in Indian courts, it was already in use in American legal writing. Chayes used the expression in his well-known work on public law litigation in the 1970s, and it is to him that the phrase itself is traced.

Once the question is read carefully as asking about the term's first use rather than about who expanded PIL in India, the two Indian judges and Professor Baxi fall away, leaving only the scholar credited with the phrase.

So, the correct answer is Prof. Abram Chayes.

Answer 2

Legal history sometimes separates the person who names an idea from the people who later put that idea into wide practice, and this question is testing exactly that distinction for Public Interest Litigation.

1. Prof. Abram Chayes, the source of the term: Writing in American legal scholarship in the 1970s on the expanding role of judges in public law disputes, Chayes used and is credited with the expression Public Interest Litigation, making him the answer to who first used the term.
2. Justice P.N. Bhagwati, builder of the practice in India: He is celebrated for relaxing procedural barriers and letting concerned citizens petition Indian courts on behalf of disadvantaged groups, a major contribution to how PIL functions in India, but this is a contribution of practice, not of naming.
3. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, co-builder of the practice in India: He shares credit with Bhagwati for the liberalisation of standing rules that allowed PIL to flourish in the Indian judiciary, again a matter of judicial practice rather than the origin of the phrase.
4. Prof. Upendra Baxi, a scholar of the practice: His academic work analyses and critiques PIL as it developed in India, situating him as a commentator on the movement rather than as the coiner of its name.

Keeping the distinction between naming a concept and expanding its use in mind, the phrase itself is traced to Professor Chayes, while the Indian names belong to the story of how PIL was practised and grown.

Hence, the correct answer is Prof. Abram Chayes.