Jurisdiction & Important Doctrines
Jurisdiction means the authority through which a court entertain suits, appeals and applications, and the court administer justice according to the provisions of the law.
Jurisdiction of the Civil Court may be categorized as follows –
- Territorial or Local Jurisdiction
- Pecuniary Jurisdiction
- Jurisdiction over subject matter
- Original and Appellate Jurisdiction
- Territorial or Local Jurisdiction: Every Court has a territorial limit beyond which it cannot exercise the power vested upon it. This limit based on the territory is called territorial jurisdiction. Example: The district judge at East Godavari District can exercise his powers only within the district of East Godavari. He cannot exercise his powers in any other district. In the same way, the High Courts will exercise the powers within the state in which it is situated and the neighboring Union Territories attached with the same High Court.
- Pecuniary Jurisdiction: Pecuniary means “involving money“. Civil Courts, according to their grades, have some limitation to try suits and entertain appeals for the value of money not exceeding some stipulated amount. The High Courts and the Court of Sessions have unlimited pecuniary jurisdiction. Junior Civil Judges have pecuniary jurisdiction of Rs.3,00,000 and Senior Civil Judges have pecuniary jurisdiction of Rs.10,00,000.
- Jurisdiction over the subject matter: There are civil courts established to try suits or cases of particular nature. For example, the small cases courts can try only non-contentious cases, like suits relating to promissory notes etc.
- Similarly, there are Industrial tribunals and labor courts having jurisdiction to try suits related to industrial and labor disputes only.
- The Administrative tribunals are there to try only the service related matters of the Government employees. These tribunals are not courts but they have been conferred judicial powers to try the matters and enforce the orders
- Original and Appellate Jurisdiction:
The Court in which the suit is filed initially and if the court has jurisdiction to try the original suits (the initial suit regarding the subject matter), such jurisdiction is called original jurisdiction.
Once the case is decided, the aggrieved party may prefer an appeal in appropriate court. Such jurisdiction of the court to hear the appeal is called the Appellate jurisdiction. The Supreme Court, High Court and District Courts are having both original and appellate jurisdiction and can hear both appeals and original suits.
Important Principles: There are some important principles related to jurisdiction of courts. These principles are there to improve the efficiency of the courts and to avoid any delay.