P. Balakotaiah vs The Union Of India And Others(And ... on 3 December, 1957
It is well settled principle of law that if an authority can exercise power under certain provisions of law under the Act, i.e., in other words, if there is a provision under the Act, which confers power on the authority concerned to consider and dispose of a matter, the order passed by that authority cannot be said to be illegal, null and void on the ground that while exercising that power, the authority concerned has made a reference to the wrong provision of law. Making reference to a wrong provision of law, when authority has got power and jurisdiction to act under some other Section or provision of the Act, will not render the order or act of the authority concerned to be without jurisdiction. In fact the jurisdiction remains that law confers on him and the order can be deemed to have been passed in exercise of the jurisdiction vested in it under the correct provision of law. It, in my opinion will be appropriate to refer to the following observation of Their Lordships of Supreme Court in P. BALAKOTAIAH v. UNION OF INDIA , which reads as under:-