In a bid to prevent PILs by fictitious persons, the Madras High Court has directed its registry to collect the litigants’ Aadhaar card copy along with other documents at the time of filing.

A division bench comprising Justices M Sathyanarayana and R Hemalatha gave the directive, saying instances of PILs being filed by fictitious persons had been brought to the notice of the court.

In future, the registry should ensure that it collects Aadhaar card copy from the petitioners. In case if any petitioner had not yet applied for Aadhaar, a copy of the ration card or voters identity card should be taken, the bench said.

The court was dismissing a petition filed by Kandhasamy seeking to quash the notice issued by the Revenue Inspector of Kariapatti for removing the encroachment made by him in front of his house.

The judges said the petitioner, who had filed a PIL earlier for removal of encroachments, had himself encroached and had not come with a clean hand.