Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

17. The word jurisdiction is derived from Latin words "Juris" and "dico," meaning "I speak by the law" and does not relate to rights of parties as between each other but to the power of the court. Jurisdiction relates to a class of cases to which a particular case belongs. Jurisdiction is the authority by which a judicial officer takes cognizance and decides the cases. It only presupposes the existence of a duly constituted court having control over subject­matter which comes within classification limits of the law under which court has been established. It should have control over the parties litigant, control over the parties' territory, it may also relate to pecuniary as well as the nature of the class of cases. Jurisdiction is generally understood as the authority to decide, render a judgment, inquire into the facts, to apply the law, and to pronounce a judgment. When there is the want of general power to act, the court has no jurisdiction. When the court has the power to inquire into the facts, apply the law, render binding judgment, and enforce it, the court has jurisdiction. Judgment within a jurisdiction has to be immune from collateral attack on the ground of nullity. It has co­relation with the constitutional and statutory power of tribunal or court to hear and determine. It means the power or capacity fundamentally to entertain, hear, and determine.

The dicta of the majority of the House of Lords in the above case would show the extent to which ‘lack’ and ‘excess’ of jurisdiction have been assimilated or, in other words, the extent to which we have moved away from the traditional concept of "jurisdiction." The effect of the dicta, in that case is to reduce the difference between jurisdictional error and error of law within jurisdiction almost to vanishing point. The practical effect of the decision is that any error of law can be reckoned as jurisdictional. This comes perilously close to saying that there is jurisdiction if the decision is right in law but none if it is wrong. Almost any misconstruction of a statute can be represented as "basing their decision on a matter with which they have no right to deal," "imposing an unwarranted condition" or "addressing themselves to a wrong question." The majority opinion in the case leaves a Court or Tribunal with virtually no margin of legal error. Whether there is excess of jurisdiction or merely error within jurisdiction can be determined only by construing the empowering statute, which will give little guidance. It is really a question of how much latitude the court is prepared to allow. In the end, it can only be a value judgment (see H.N.R. Wade, "Constitutional and Administrative Aspects of the Anisminic case", Law Quarterly Review, Vol. 85,1969, p. 198). Why is it that a wrong decision on a question of limitation or res judicata was treated as a jurisdictional error and liable to be interfered with in revision? It is a bit difficult to understand how an erroneous decision on a question of limitation or res judicata would oust the jurisdiction of the court in the primitive sense of the term and render the decision or a decree embodying the decision a nullity liable to collateral attack. The reason can only be that the error of law was considered as vital by the court. And there is no yardstick to determine the magnitude of the error other than the opinion of the Court.” (emphasis supplied) It has been laid down that erroneous decision on the question of res judicata or limitation would not oust the jurisdiction of the Court nor render the decision a nullity liable to collateral attack. The test of having no jurisdiction by the Court is that its judgment is amenable to attack in collateral proceedings.

73. The question of jurisdiction came up for consideration in Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (supra), in which this Court observed that same is power of the court to hear and determine a case and to adjudicate or exercise any judicial power and its contextual interpretation has to be made. The Court observed:

“21. That “jurisdiction” is a coat of many colours, and that the said word displays a certain colour depending upon the context in which it is mentioned, is well­settled. In the classic sense, in Official Trustee v. Sachindra Nath Chatterjee, AIR 1969 SC 823, "jurisdiction" is stated to be: (SCR p. 99: AIR pp. 827­28, para 13) “13. … ‘In the order of reference to a Full Bench in Sukh Lal Sheikh v. Tara Chand Ta, ILR (1906) 33 Cal 68, it was stated that jurisdiction may be defined to be the power of a court to hear and determine a cause, to adjudicate and exercise any judicial power in relation to it; in other words, by jurisdiction is meant the authority which a court has to decide matters that are litigated before it or to take cognizance of matters presented in a formal way for its decision. An examination of the cases in the books discloses numerous attempts to define the term “jurisdiction”, which has been stated to be “the power to hear and determine issues of law and fact”, “the authority by which the judicial officers take cognizance of and decide causes”; “the authority to hear and decide a legal controversy”, “the power to hear and determine the subject­matter in controversy between parties to a suit and to adjudicate or exercise any judicial power over them”; “the power to hear, determine and pronounce judgment on the issues before the court”; “the power or authority which is conferred upon a court by the legislature to hear and determine causes between parties and to carry the judgments into effect”; “the power to enquire into the facts, to apply the law, to pronounce the judgment and to carry it into execution”.’ (Mukherjee, Acting C.J., speaking for the Full Bench of the Calcutta High Court in Hirday Nath Roy v. Ram Chandra Barna Sarma, 1920 SCC OnLine Cal 85 : ILR (1921) 48 Cal 138, SCC OnLine Cal)”” In Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (supra), it is further observed that if the Court having jurisdiction, has decided the question wrongly, it cannot be said that Court had no jurisdiction to do so and erroneous decision on question of jurisdiction or res judicata would not oust the jurisdiction of the Court and render the decision a nullity liable to collateral attack.

CONCLUSION

77.(a) Given the discussion above, we are of the considered opinion that the jurisdiction to entertain has different connotation from the jurisdictional error committed in exercise thereof. There is a difference between the existence of jurisdiction and the exercise of jurisdiction. The expression jurisdiction has been used in CPC at several places in different contexts and takes colour from the context in which it has been used. The existence of jurisdiction is reflected by the fact of amenability of the judgment to attack in the collateral proceedings. If the court has an inherent lack of jurisdiction, its decision is open to attack as a nullity. While deciding the issues of the bar created by the law of limitation, res judicata, the Court must have jurisdiction to decide these issues. Under the provisions of section 9A and Order XIV Rule 2, it is open to decide preliminary issues if it is purely a question of law not a mixed question of law and fact by recording evidence. The decision in Foreshore Cooperative Housing Society Limited (supra) cannot be said to be laying down the law correctly. We have considered the decisions referred to therein, they are in different contexts. The decision of the Full Bench of the High Court of Bombay in Meher Singh (supra) holding that under section 9A the issue to try a suit/jurisdiction can be decided by recording evidence if required and by proper adjudication, is overruled. We hold that the decision in Kamlakar Shantaram (supra) has been correctly decided and cannot be said to be per incuriam, as held in Foreshore Cooperative Housing Society Limited (supra).