In 1987, I was practising in Gujarat High Court.
A man came to me to complain about an industrial unit which was smoking so much ash in the air that life in nearby housing societies had become hell. By evening, their utensils, clothes, rooms everything used to get covered with ash.
I filed a PIL and asked for two prayers 1) Pollution Control Board be directed to check this industrial unit and file report in Court and, second prayer was a little bigger, 2) Direct that the industrial unit be uprooted and be relocated elsewhere !
High court issued show cause notice in PIL.
The industrial unit was owned by a national corporate giant. Their office got into a hyper mode.
They can manage and fix up with pollution control officers, but what to do if whole Industry was directed to be shifted elsewhere! May be hundred or thousand Crores were invested in industry. Loss would be huge.
The goons were let loose on the petitioner. He immediately called me to withdraw PIL. I asked him to send me written instructions.
His letter withdrawing PIL was filed in Court and PIL was withdrawn.
Today, in retrospect, I think I made mistake in drafting second prayer. It was too frightening. It was unnecessary.
Lesson: File PIL in a little Dumber way. Do not frighten respondent too much. Leave things to court. Just state your problem and let the Court frame relief which can be granted.
Haresh Raichura 10/2/17
