Definition
Third party participation.
Person allowed to join ongoing proceedings.
Etymology & Origin
From Latin 'intervenire' (to come between, interrupt). In law, a third party coming between the original plaintiff and defendant.
Full Legal Analysis
An Intervenor is a third party—someone who was not originally a plaintiff or a defendant—who voluntarily applies to the court to be made a party to an ongoing lawsuit or writ petition because they have a direct interest in the outcome of the case.
Unlike an Amicus Curiae, who is impartial and assists the court, an intervenor joins the case to protect their own specific legal rights or interests, which might be adversely affected by the court's judgment. Intervention is most common in constitutional matters or PILs where a judgment will impact a large class of people or industries.
The court has the discretion to allow or deny an intervention application. If allowed, the intervenor is usually permitted to file written submissions and make oral arguments, but they generally cannot expand the original scope of the dispute.
The Supreme Court noted that an intervenor must take the case as they find it. They cannot raise entirely new factual disputes or challenge the maintainability of the original petition.
Advocates representing industry bodies often file intervention applications in Supreme Court PILs to ensure their commercial interests are heard before restrictive environmental or regulatory orders are passed.
This Term in Indian Statutes
Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, 1908
"Power of Court to permit a person or body of persons to present opinion or to take part in the proceedings."
The procedural basis for allowing third parties to join civil litigation.
