Introduction

Prohibition and Certiorari are two of writs of Indian Constitution and have been created to prevent power dominance by public authorities. These writs have been issued to quasi-judicial and judicial bodies at first but later it has also been issued in different administrative decisions which have been seen to affect rights of people. Certiorari has also been seen to be used in controlling power dominance.

Discussion

Prohibition

Prohibition writ of Indian constitution has been seen to be used whenever a tribunal or inferior court have been seen to act without proper jurisdiction or have been seen to misuse power of jurisdiction. These acts have also been known to act in violation of natural justice or violation of constitutional rules and regulations. Whenever a court has been seen to act against a person without proper jurisdiction rights, that respective person can file a complaint and writ of prohibition can come to the rescue. Implementation of writ of prohibition can then prohibit that respective court to stop proceedings on that case until proper jurisdiction rights have been provided to that court. Writ of prohibition can be filed in high court depending on some circumstances and all these circumstances have been seen to be based on an act of a subordinate court. These circumstances include subordinate courts acting without jurisdiction, subordinate courts acting more than their jurisdiction by misusing its power, subordinate courts have been seen to act in disregard of law and when a subordinate court has been found to act in violation of natural justice rules.

Certiorari

Writ of Certiorari has been seen to be issued to some inferior courts by Supreme Court to transfer a matter to some superior authority. This writ has also been seen to be used to quash an order which has already been passed by an inferior court. Writ of Certiorari has been seen to be applicable in later stages than that of writ of prohibition. Many differences between Certiorari and Prohibition have been seen to be present however; a major difference has been the stage at which these writs can be issued. Apart from this, it has been seen that writ of prohibition can be made available during a proceeding of an inferior court which has no jurisdiction over that particular proceedings and Certiorari can be seen to be made available only after a proceeding has finished and the responsible court has provided final verdict. Apart from these differences, a major similarity between these writs has been to be issued against different legal bodies. Certiorari has been seen to be issued under different articles. When writ of Certiorari has been issued by Supreme Court, it falls under article 32 and when it has been issued by a high court, it falls under article 226.

Prohibition Example

Writ of prohibition has been seen to be used on grounds where writ of Certiorari can be issued. One exception of this has also been seen to be present in cases of error of apparent laws. “Brij Khandelwal vs. India, A. I. R (1975) Del. 184” has been known as a major prohibition example. This case included Central Government and Delhi High Court as Delhi High Court has been seen to refuse prohibition to Central Government to prevent them from getting in an agreement with Sri Lanka. This agreement has been seen to be a boundary dispute. Decision of this case has been made based on principle of prohibition writ. This principle of prohibition depicts that prohibition never goes against executive functions of Governments and Prohibition has always been issued in order to control quasi-judicial functions rather than executive functions. 

This aspect of writ of prohibition soon changed depending on expansion of natural justice concept and rules which has been seen to implement concept of fairness in administrative functions. These expansions and implementation of concepts have been seen to loosen the rigidity of prohibition writ. These resulted in issuing writ of prohibition to anyone irrespective of nature of authority. Writ of Prohibition being issued to anyone has put this writ to be a general remedy used by different judicial bodies to control administrative and quasi-judicial actions which can be seen to affect rights of individuals.

“Mannusamappa & Sons vs. Custodian evacuee Property, A. I. R (1962) S. C. 789” has also been known as a good prohibition example. In this case, custodian has been seen to accept pensioners as tenants of evacuee property. A Custodian has also been seen to accept payments from tenants for five months and then has been seen to proceed against these tenants to see if they have permissive possession of the evacuee property. A Writ of Prohibition has been seen to be issued to Custodian forbidding him to proceed further.

Conclusion

This article concluded concepts of writ of Prohibition and Certiorari. Clear concept of these writs along with where these writs can be applied to, have been discussed in the assignment. Examples of some cases regarding writ of prohibition have also been concluded in this assignment in order to provide a clearer idea about these writs. Some frequently asked questions with appropriate answers have also been concluded in this assignment.