Public-interest Litigation (India) - PIL Results Study

PIL Results Study

According to a controversial study by social scientist Hans Dembowski, PIL has been successful in making official authorities accountable to NGOs. While Dembowski also found some effect at the grassroots level, PIL cases dealing with major environmental grievances in the Kolkata urban agglomeration did not tackle underlying problems (such as inadequate town planning). Dembowski's book Taking the State to Court - Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India was originally published by Oxford University Press in 2001. The publisher, however, discontinued distribution because of contempt of court proceedings initiated by the Calcutta High Court. The author (who claimed he was never officially notified by the court) has republished the book online with Germany-based NGO Asia House.

Read more about this topic:  Public-interest Litigation (India)

Famous quotes containing the words results and/or study:

    Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    Though those who study are as many as the number of hairs on an ox, those who succeed are as rare as unicorns’ horns.
    Chinese proverb.