LAW5403 Procedural Law-II — Unit 1: Jurisdiction of the Court

Unit 1: Jurisdiction of the Court

1.1 Meaning and Nature of Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction = the court’s power to hear, decide and execute a class of cases — the lawful authority’s boundary. Its sources: the Constitution (the court structure’s spine — Part 11, Arts 126–156) and statute (the Civil Procedure Code 2074, the Criminal Procedure Code 2074, the special statutes’ tribunal clauses). Its species (the exam map): territorial (place), pecuniary (amount), subject-matter (the case’s kind); original vs appellate; exclusive vs concurrent; civil vs criminal; ordinary vs extraordinary (the writs). Nature’s rules: jurisdiction is conferred by law, not consent — parties cannot by agreement give a court power it lacks; a decision by a court without jurisdiction is a nullity (void, coram non judice — name only); jurisdiction is determined at inception (later facts don’t oust it); and objections to it may be raised at any stage. The distinction that saves confusion: jurisdiction is the power question, merits the rights question, procedure the route question — this course is the third, built on the first.

1.2 Jurisdiction of Lower (Trial) Court

The District Court — one in every district (Art 148) — the trial court of first instance for civil and criminal cases: original jurisdiction over cases and execution of judgments (Art 151); habeas corpus and prohibitory-order petitions within the district (Art 151 — the district court as the liberty’s first guardian); appeals from quasi-judicial bodies and local-level judicial institutions (Art 151); and contempt power. Beside it: the local-level judicial institutions under the district court (Art 148 — provincial law may create them), the Judicial Committees of the local level (Art 217: the Deputy Head/Deputy Mayor convening a three-member committee over cases the law entrusts — the village justice’s constitutional face), and the specialized trial bodies — the Special Court (corruption and the special statutes’ cases), the Labour Court, the Debt Recovery Tribunal, the Revenue Tribunal (Art 152’s specialized courts; no court for a particular case; and the constitutional floor: offences punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment triable only by a court or judicial body — Art 152). Trial-level quasi-judicial organs complete the picture: the Chief District Officer’s licensing-and-order functions, the CIAA’s investigative-accusatorial powers, departmental adjudication under the customs/revenue laws (the judicial-vs-quasi-judicial distinction and its natural-justice discipline — Procedural Law-I, Semester 4).

1.3 Jurisdiction of Higher (Appeal Hearing) Court

The High Court — one in each province (Art 139): the first appellate tier over district court judgments (civil and criminal), appellate jurisdiction over quasi-judicial bodies’ decisions where the law so provides, writ jurisdiction within the province (Art 144 — the five writs for FR enforcement, for rights without effective remedy, and public-interest legal questions), original jurisdiction as statute confers, case-transfer powers (Art 145), and contempt (Art 139). Its supervisory face over the district judiciary (inspection, directives — the justice-administration legislation’s frame) makes the HC both the error-correcting and the standard-setting court. Appeals lie from the High Court to the Supreme Court as the law provides (Art 133 — below).

1.4 Jurisdiction of Administrative Court, Tribunals and Other Quasi-Judicial Bodies

Nepal has no separate system of administrative courts: administrative justice flows through four channels — (i) specialized courts and tribunals (Art 152): the Special Court, the Labour Court, the Debt Recovery Tribunal, the Revenue Tribunal — the administrative-state’s own adjudicators; (ii) departmental/quasi-judicial bodies: the CDO’s statutory functions, customs and revenue adjudication, the CIAA’s proceedings, professional disciplinary bodies; (iii) the Judicial Committees (Art 217) at the local level; and (iv) the ordinary courts’ supervision — appeal/revision from the tribunals and bodies (Art 151), and the writs (Arts 133, 144) against administrative action. The disciplines binding them: natural justice (nemo judex in causa sua, audi alteram partem — the Parsuram Banjade line, Procedural Law-I), reasoned decisions, jurisdiction-fidelity (the Gajurel/Chandrakala Devi jurisprudence on quasi-judicial power), and the courts’ power to quash the excess.

1.5 Jurisdiction of Supreme Court

The Supreme Court (Arts 127–137): the apex court — court of record, final interpreter of the Constitution and law, chief of judicial administration, its interpretations and legal principles binding on all (Art 128 — the precedent’s constitutional source, applied through Art 128’s discipline); the Chief Justice and up to twenty justices (Art 129).

1.5.1 Ordinary Jurisdiction

(a) Hearing the Appeal — appeals from High Court judgments and orders as law provides; PIL and interpretation questions; references from HCs (Art 133’s clauses).
(b) Correctional Jurisdiction — the Court’s power to correct errors and to manage causes: transfer and invitation of cases of public importance, inter-HC transfers for impartiality (Art 134), correction of its own ongoing/interlocutory orders (the chalu-aadesh correction practice) and the judicial-administration directives (Art 128).
(c) Review — the Court’s power to review its own decisions (Art 133’s jurisdiction list; the review heard by a different bench), on the classic grounds: error apparent, new matters, the interest of justice — rare, corrective, not a second appeal.
(d) Revision — the supervisory power to correct subordinate courts’ errors of law apparent where no appeal lies (the justice-administration legislation and the Court’s rules) — legality’s patrol, not merits’ re-trial.

1.5.2 Extra-Ordinary Jurisdiction (Hearing of Writ Petitions)

The writ jurisdiction — Art 133: (1) any Nepali citizen may petition to declare a law void (an unreasonably-restrictive or otherwise inconsistent law — including provincial-local conflicts with the federal order); (2) the extraordinary power for FR enforcement, for legal rights without other effective remedy, and for public-interest constitutional/legal questions (the PIL root); (3) the five writs: habeas corpus (produce the detained — liberty’s writ), mandamus (perform the public duty), certiorari (quash the excess of jurisdiction/legal error on the face), prohibition (stop the impending excess), quo warranto (by what authority does the office-holder hold office). The High Court’s parallel writ power within the province — Art 144. The writs are discretionary, forged for justice: the Court may issue “any other appropriate order” to do complete justice.

Model Questions

1. Define jurisdiction. What are its kinds and sources? Can parties confer it by consent? (10)
2. Describe the jurisdiction of the District Court under the Constitution, with the local-level judicial institutions. (15)
3. Explain the appellate jurisdiction of the High Court and the Supreme Court. (10)
4. How does Nepal answer the administrative-justice problem without administrative courts? (10)
5. Explain the Supreme Court’s ordinary and extraordinary jurisdiction with constitutional provisions. (15)
6. Short notes: (a) Art 152’s two rules; (b) Quo warranto vs mandamus; (c) Review vs revision; (d) Judicial Committee (Art 217). (4×5)

---

📚 Get the complete notes: Download the full Procedural Law-II PDF (all units) — Law Info Nepal Original Notes Series.