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On the substantive requirements for maintaining a public interest litigation the court reiterated that the petitioner must demonstrate sufficient research and independent verification before approaching the judiciary. It held that reliance purely on a pending DVAC investigation or on digital gossip does not satisfy the stringent threshold of sufficient research mandated for filing a PIL.

The order quoted the observation that when a public interest litigation is filed without a shred of independent research it must be throttled at the threshold. The bench found that the petitioner had merely bundled newspaper clippings YouTube references and an FIR to build a narrative of widespread malpractice against the college without conducting any independent verification prior to rushing to the court.

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Furthermore the court pointed out that a writ of mandamus requires a prior demand for justice before the concerned authorities and a subsequent refusal. Since no such demand and refusal were shown the petition failed to meet the procedural prerequisite for mandamus relief.

The bench also held that the matter was sub judice because a criminal investigation by the DVAC was already underway. Filing a PIL without verifying foundational facts under such circumstances was characterised as an attempt to sensationalise a pending legal process.

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Consequently the court dismissed the petition. The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate R Shunmugasundaram and Advocate A Gopinath. Senior Advocate K S Jeyaganeshan appeared for the Union government Advocate V Sudha for the University Grants Commission Government Pleader Mohammed Fayaz Ali for the State of Tamil Nadu Standing Counsel U Baranidharan for Anna University.

The decision underscores the Madras High Court’s insistence that public interest litigation must be grounded in verifiable facts and independent research rather than on unverified media reports or pending investigations.

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