<P> Public Interest Litigation is directly filed by an individual or group of people in the Supreme Court of India . It was felt that their interests are undermined by the government.In such a situation, the court directly accepts the public good . It is a new legal horizon in which court of law can initiate and enforce action to serve and secure significant Public Interest . </P> <P> In December 1979, Kapila Hingorane had filed a petition regarding the condition of the prisoners detained in the Bihar jail, whose suits were pending in the court . The special thing about this petition was that it was not filed by any single prisoner, rather it was filed by various prisoners of the Bihar jail . The case was filed in the Supreme Court before the bench headed by Justice Krishna Iyer . This petition was filed by the name of the prisoner, Hussainara Khatoon, hence the petition came to be known as Hussainara Khatoon Vs State of Bihar . In this case, the Supreme Court upheld that the prisoners should get benefit of free legal aid and fast hearing . Because of this case 40,000 prisoners, whose suits were pending in the court, were released from the jail . There after many cases like this have registered in the supreme court . It was in the case of SP Gupta vs Union of India that the Supreme Court of India defined the term "public interest litigation" in the Indian Context . </P> <P> The concept of public interest litigation (PIL) is in consonance with the principles enshrined in Article 39A of the Constitution of India to protect and deliver prompt social justice with the help of law . Before the 1980s, only the aggrieved party could approach the courts for justice . After the emergency era the high court reached out to the people, devising a means for any person of the public (or an NGO) to approach the court seeking legal remedy in cases where the public interest is at stake . Justice P. N. Bhagwati and Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer were among the first judges to admit PILs in court . Filing a PIL is not as cumbersome as a usual legal case; there have been instances when letters and telegrams addressed to the court have been taken up as PILs and heard . </P> <P> The Court entertained a letter from two professors at the University of Delhi seeking enforcement of the constitutional right of inmates at a protective home in Agra who were living in inhuman and degrading conditions . In Miss Veena Sethi v. State of Bihar, 1982 (2) SCC 583: 1982 SCC (Cri) 511: AIR 1983 SC 339, the court treated a letter addressed to a judge of the court by the Free Legal Aid Committee in Hazaribagh, Bihar as a writ petition . In Citizens for Democracy through its President v. State of Assam and Others, 1995 KHC 486: 1995 (2) KLT SN 74: 1995 (3) SCC 743: 1995 SCC (Cri) 600: AIR 1996 SC 2193, the court entertained a letter from Shri Kuldip Nayar (a journalist, in his capacity as President of Citizens for Democracy) to a judge of the court alleging human - rights violations of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) detainees; it was treated as a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India . </P>

The concept of pil originated in which country