New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued fresh guidelines for entertaining public interest litigations (PILs) in a move seen aimed at tackling the rising "frivolous" and "bogus" petitions.

The modified guidelines, published by the court, follow its outburst last week in which it said time had come for slapping a penalty of Rs One lakh to deter such petitions which have become a "nuisance."

The issue of PILs, in recent times, has also seen differences among judges come into the open. The new guidelines assume significance in the wake of some of the controversial judgements by the top court in dealing with PILs in the past two months.

With the aim to streamline the process, the guidelines said the matters relating to landlord-tenant, services and those pertaining to pension and gratuity, complaints against Central/State government departments and local bodies would not fall under the categories of PILs.

The petitions pertaining to maintenance of wife, children and parent will be out of the purview of the PIL and the petitioners concerned may be asked to take refuge of Section 125 of the code of criminal procedure code or suit in the court of competent court, it said.

The apex court which has been trying hard to achieve the target of "zero-pendency" totally kept the matters of admissions to medical colleges and other institutions out of the purview of PIL.

While making it clear that no petition involving individual/personal issues will be entertained as PIL, the apex court said letter-petitions concerning bonded labour, neglected children, non-payment of minimum wages to workers and petitions from jail complaining harassment, and seeking release after completing 14 years in prison will be treated as PILs.

Source : PTI