LOCUS STANDI OF NGOS IN THE INDIAN COURTS: A LEGAL ANALYSIS

The idea of standing or locus standi governs the definition who is eligible to initiate a lawsuit before the which means to present proof before the court in the pursuit of justice. In the initial time, the Indian courts traditionally followed a restricted perspective by allowing only the "aggrieved party" who had been through the hardships and infringement of their legal rights directly to file a case against the offending party. This circumscribed perspective has hindered the capacity of marginalized groups and the under privileged people to utilize the court since they lacked the knowledge, understanding and resource or the social status to seek justice for themselves. In order to fill this gap, the Indian Legal System and to provide opportunities for the marginalised and underprivileged population, our Indian Courts began to liberalised the applicability of "Locus Standi" in the late 1970s by establishing the mechanism of "Public Interest Litigation" or "PILs".