Allowing an appeal in Radhey Shyam & Anr v Chhabi Nath & Ors, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court recently held that judicial orders of civil courts are not amenable to writ jurisdiction under article 226 of the constitution of India. Article 226 deals with the power of high courts to issue certain writs.
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The Supreme Court set aside a 2003 ruling by a two-judge bench of the court in Surya Dev Rai v Ram Chander Rai and others that had held to the contrary. A 2009 order by a two-judge bench had observed that the Surya Dev Rai ruling did not correctly appreciate the ratio in an earlier nine-judge ruling of the Supreme Court in Naresh Shridhar Mirajkar and others v State of Maharashtra, in which the court held that certiorari does not lie to quash the judgments of inferior courts of civil jurisdiction.
In the current case, Chhabi Nath had filed a writ petition before Allahabad High Court challenging an interim order of a civil court in favour of Radhey Shyam, granted in a pending suit. The high court had vacated the interim order, prompting Shyam to file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court.
Observing that there are no precedents in India for high courts to issue writs to subordinate courts, the Supreme Court ruled that challenges to judicial orders could lie by way of appeal or revision or under article 227, which gives every high court superintendence over all courts and tribunals within its jurisdiction. The court held that “orders of civil court stand on different footing from the orders of authorities or tribunals or courts other than judicial/civil courts”. It clarified that while appellate or revisional jurisdiction is regulated by statutes, the power of superintendence granted under article 227 is constitutional.
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The dispute digest is compiled by Bhasin & Co, Advocates, a corporate law firm based in New Delhi. The authors can be contacted at lbhasin@bhasinco.in or lbhasin@gmail.com. Readers should not act on the basis of this information without seeking professional legal advice.
