The term "Public Interest Litigation (PIL)" was first used by:

The term "Public Interest Litigation" (PIL) originated in the United States and was first used by Professor Abram Chayes to describe the practice of utilizing litigation to achieve systemic reform in public policy and civil rights. In India, while Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer and Justice P.N. Bhagwati pioneered and popularized the concept, the original usage of the nomenclature is credited to Prof. Abram Chayes.