The Bombay High Court’s Nagpur Bench turned 23 news reports into suo motu PILs within eleven weeks of 2026, acting on media stories and lawyers’ letters. This already exceeds the eighteen such cases initiated in all of 2025.
The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court initiated 23 suo motu public interest litigations (PILs) in the first 11 weeks of 2026, acting on news stories and letters from lawyers. That figure already surpasses the 18 suo motu PILs the Bench launched during the entire year of 2025.
Justice Anil S. Kilor has most frequently presided over these benches, often sitting alongside Justice Raj D. Wakode. The judges have routinely transformed media reports and lawyer emails into PILs and appointed amici curiae (friend of the court) to assist in the proceedings.
Their approach has targeted specific, everyday governance failures rather than large, abstract issues. The matters brought before the court have included broken village roads, missing cremation grounds, garbage-clogged streets, medicine shortages, contaminated drinking water and the absence of a playground in a residential neighbourhood.
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Treating each incident as a distinct issue, the Bench has issued focused directions and demanded concrete remedial steps from the relevant authorities.
This method mirrors rulings from 2025. In one case, concerning a tigress called F2 and her five cubs in the Umred-Karhandla sanctuary, the Bench criticised drivers, guides and the Forest Department for their slow response after tourist vehicles obstructed the animals, and it sought an affidavit detailing action taken.
A PIL on “dignity in death” in 2025 triggered by reports that 204 Nagpur villages lacked cremation facilitiesprompted a policy change: the Maharashtra government issued a February 2025 resolution prioritising village infrastructure funds for villages with functional cremation or burial grounds.
Another 2025 matter involved 22 solar-powered villages in Dharni with failing systems; the Bench converted an MP Balwant Wankhade petition into a suo motu PIL.
The Court made clear it did not want every local political grievance elevated to PIL status, but it treated the breakdown of basic solar infrastructure as a matter of wider public concern.
In 2026 the Bench’s priorities have emphasised health, water, waste management and environmental protection.
Notable cases include:
- A PIL over a severe faculty shortfall at Nagpur AIIMS, where 137 of 373 posts are vacant and patient care has been affected.
- Proceedings on 11 tiger deaths in Maharashtra in January and on repeated flooding in Chandrapur caused by a non-functional bund.
- A suo motu PIL addressing Nagpur’s defunct traffic signals only 10 of 171 upgraded signals are working.
- Scrutiny of mining and forest decisions, including the State’s clearance for iron ore mining in the Tadoba-Andhari landscape and a case concerning the Lohardongri opencast mine.
- A petition about medicine shortages at the Government Mental Hospital linked to centralised procurement.
- A matter about large-scale, uncompensated tree felling on “London Street” Road.
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The Bench has been sharply critical of Nagpur’s cleanliness and water quality, increasingly using suo motu PILs to tackle civic and environmental shortcomings. In February it initiated a PIL over uncollected garbage, noting the failure of the “Clean Nagpur” slogan despite the Nagpur Municipal Corporation spending roughly Rs.100 crore a year on waste collection.
Earlier, On February 26 it took up contaminated drinking water after the civic body admitted to supplying dirty water to nearly 50 localities, with reports of ensuing illnesses.
Additionally, On March 9, 2026, the Court converted reports about “invaluable prehistoric archaeological sites” in Bhatala and Mowad villages (Chandrapur district) into a suo motu PIL, recognising their significance for the prehistoric cultural landscape of central India.
The Bench has also sought to safeguard petitioners in sensitive matters: when a petitioner in a quartzite mining irregularity case withdrew because of threats, the Bench permitted withdrawal but converted the matter into a PIL to ensure the issue remained under judicial scrutiny.
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It has taken up rising human–wildlife conflict and tiger attacks in Pench Tiger Reserve, questioning whether administration is prioritising tourism over safety. And it broadened a complaint about the lack of a playground in Hindustan Colony into a citywide PIL, asking for a review of open spaces across Nagpur.
The recent surge in suo motu PILs highlights the Nagpur Bench’s sustained emphasis on enforcing civic responsibility through judicial intervention. By turning news accounts into formal cases, the Court has repeatedly used PIL powers to address routine governance failures across the region.
Critics argue that this expansive use of PIL jurisdiction amounts to judicial interference in executive functions. Supporters counter that the Bench’s interventions have compelled authorities to act in areas where they otherwise did not.