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TMI Blog2012 (10) TMI 633X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act, 1957'). 2. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are mentioned hereunder : A. The Government of Gujarat, in exercise of its power under the Act of 1957 and the Rules, 1982 appointed appellant no.2 as the President of the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal vide order dated 16.4.1988. His appointment was challenged by the respondents herein, on the ground that the office of the Chairman, being a "judicial office" could not be usurped by a person who had been an Administrative Officer all his life. The validity of Sections 4 and 20 of the Act 1957 and Rule 3(1)(iii)(a) of the Rules 1982 was challenged. The appellants contested the writ petition, submitting that in exercise of the power conferred under Section 20 of the Act 1957 and the Rules 1982, a notification was issued on 8.2.1983, making the Secretary to the Government eligible for appointment as Chairman of the Revenue Tribunal, and as he had acted as a Revenue Officer while holding the posts of Sub Divisional Officer, District Collector, and Divisional Commissioner, it could not be held that he was ineligible to hold the said post of President of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e validity of clause (g) was not under challenge. But on that count there will be no illegality. The Tribunal cannot be held to be a 'court' within the meaning of the Constitutional provisions. The Act 1957 and Rules 1982, do not even suggest consultation with the High Court, while appointing the President of the Tribunal. Therefore, the appeal deserves to be allowed. 4. On the contrary, Shri Yashank Pravin Adhyaru, learned Senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents has vehemently opposed the appeal contending that, no error can be found with the impugned judgment and order of the High Court. This is because the earlier Acts, which stood repealed by the Act of 1957, did not contain any provision enabling the State Government to appoint an Administrative Officer as the President of the Tribunal. Under the old Act, the person who is eligible to hold such post was a retired Judge of the High Court. Moreover, Rule 3(iii) of the Rules 1982 enables the State Government to appoint a Judicial Officer, a District Judge, the President of the Court of Small Causes, Bombay and the Principal Judge of the City Civil Court to the aforementioned post. In case they are st ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provisions of the enactments specified in the First Schedule. Schedule 1 includes the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879, the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1874 as extended to the Kutch area of State of Bombay, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 etc. Section 9(4) of the Act reads as under: "Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, when the Tribunal has jurisdiction to entertain and decide appeals from and revise decisions and orders of, any person, officer or authority to any matter aforesaid, no other person, officer or authority shall have jurisdiction to entertain and decide appeals from and revise decisions or orders of such person, officer or authority in that matter." Section 13(1) of the Act reads as under: "In exercising the jurisdiction conferred upon it by or under this Act, the Tribunal shall have all the powers of a Civil Court for the purpose of taking evidence on oath, affirmation or affidavit, of summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses, of compelling discovery and the production of documents and material objects, requisitioning any public record or any copy thereof from any Court or office, issuing commiss ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... District Judge; d) The Chief Judge, Small Cause Court, Ahmedabad; e) A member of the Industrial Court constituted under the Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946; f) A member of the Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1957; or g) A member of the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal constituted under the Bombay Revenue Tribunal Act, 1957." (Emphasis added) (2) A member shall be a person who has not attained the age of 65 years and- (a) Who is holding or has held an office not lower in rank than that of - (i) A Collector; (ii) A Deputy Secretary to the Government of Gujarat; (iii) A District Judge; (iv) An Assistant Judge, or a Civil Judge (Senior Division) appointed under the Bombay Civil Courts Act, 1869, or a Civil Judge holding an equivalent office under any other law for the time being in force; or (b) Who is an advocate or attorney of the High Court, or a legal practitioner entitled to practice before courts other than the High Court under any law relating to legal practitioners for the time being in force in this State, has practiced for not less than five years in any Civil Courts or before the Tribunal, and is, in the opinion of the State ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rt has revisional jurisdiction so far as the judgments and orders passed by the Tribunal are concerned. Supervisory or revisional jurisdiction is considered to be a power vesting in any superior court or Tribunal, enabling it to satisfy itself as regards the correctness of the orders of the inferior Tribunal. This is the basic difference between appellate and supervisory jurisdiction. Appellate jurisdiction confers a right upon the aggrieved person to complain in the prescribed manner, to a higher forum whereas, supervisory/revisional power has a different object and purpose altogether as it confers the right and responsibility upon the higher forum to keep the subordinate Tribunals within the limits of the law. It is for this reason that revisional power can be exercised by the competent authority/court suo motu, in order to see that subordinate Tribunals do not transgress the rules of law and are kept within the framework of powers conferred upon them. Such revisional powers have to be exercised sparingly, only as a discretion in order to prevent gross injustice and the same cannot be claimed, as a matter of right by any party. Even if the person heading the Tribunal is otherwise ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , AIR 1963 SC 874; Associated Cement Companies Ltd. v. P.N. Sharma & Anr., AIR 1965 SC 1595; Ramrao & Anr. v. Narayan & Anr., AIR 1969 SC 724; State of Himachal Pradesh & Ors. v. Raja Mahendra Pal & Anr., AIR 1999 SC 1786; Keshab Narayan Banerjee v. State of Bihar & Ors., AIR 2000 SC 485; Indian National Congress (I) v. Institute of Social Welfare & Ors., AIR 2002 SC 2158; K. Shamrao & Ors. v. Assistant Charity Commissioner, (2003) 3 SCC 563; Trans Mediterranean Airways v. Universal Exports, (2011) 10 SCC 316 at page 338; and Namit Sharma v. Union of India, JT 2012 (9) SC 166). 11. In Harinagar Sugar Mills Ltd. v. Shyam Sundar Jhunjunwala & Ors., AIR 1961 SC 1669, Hidayatullah, J. (as His Lordship then was) made a distinction between a "court" and a "Tribunal" as is explained hereunder: ".......These Tribunals have the authority of law to pronounce upon valuable rights; they act in a judicial manner and even on evidence on oath, but they are not part of the ordinary Courts of Civil Judicature. They share the exercise of the judicial power of the State, but they are brought into existence to implement some administrative policy or to determine controversies arising out of s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... away the High Court's power of superintendence over Tribunals. Moreover, the High Court's power has been restricted to have judicial superintendence only over judgments of inferior courts, i.e. judgments in cases where against the same, appeal or revision lies with the High Court. A question does arise as regards whether the expression 'courts' as it appears in the amended Article 227, is confined only to the regular civil or criminal courts that have been constituted under the hierarchy of courts and whether all Tribunals have in fact been excluded from the purview of the High Court's superintendence. Undoubtedly, all courts are Tribunals but all Tribunals are not courts. 13. The High Court's power of judicial superintendence, even under the amended provisions of Article 227 is applicable, provided that two conditions are fulfilled; firstly, such Tribunal, body or authority must perform judicial functions of rendering definitive judgments having finality, which bind the parties in respect of their rights, in the exercise of the sovereign judicial power transferred to it by the State, and secondly such Tribunal, body or authority should be the subje ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in, direction had been issued that the Vice-Chairman of the CAT could be only a retired Judge of the High Court, i.e., a Judicial Member and that such a post could not be held by a Member of the Administrative Service, observing that such a direction had put at naught/obliterated from the statute book, certain provisions without striking them down. 17-18. A Constitution Bench of this Court in Statesman (Private) Ltd. v. H.R. Deb & Ors., AIR 1968 SC 1495, examined the provisions of Sections 7(3)(d) and g(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which contain the expression 'judicial office', and held that a person holds 'judicial office' if he is performing judicial functions. The scheme of Chapters V and VI of the Constitution deal with judicial office and judicial service. Judicial service means a separation of the judiciary from the executive in public services. The functions of the labour court are of great public importance and are quasi-judicial in nature, therefore, a man having experience of the civil side of the law is more suitable to preside over it, as compared to a person working on the criminal side. Persons employed performing multifarious duti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... standing. Further, the Tribunal dealing with various cases under the Gujarat Agriculture and Land Ceiling Act, 1961, Gujarat Private Forest Act, Bombay Public Trust Act, Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, Bombay Jagirdari and Other Tenure Abolition Act, and with questions of title under Section 37(2) of the Bombay Land Revenue Court has to deal with large number of civil disputes between the citizens, as well as between the Government and citizens and, it is pertinent to note that at the relevant time of filing of this Writ Petition, 6500 cases were pending before the Tribunal. With these assertions, the prayers made by the writ petitioners were mainly to declare Sections 4 and 20 of the Act, 1958 as ultra-vires and unconstitutional on the grounds that they gave absolute unguided power to the State Government in relation to the appointment of the President, and further, to declare Rule 3(1) so far as it authorises the appointment of the Secretary, as ultra-vires and void, and also to quash the appointment of the respondent as the President. The State Government contested the case, contending that the provisions of Article 236 of the Constitution have no application. Furthe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... no Civil Court shall have the jurisdiction to settle, decide or deal with, any question which is by or under this Act, required to be settled, decided or dealt with, by the Tribunal in appeal or revision. It is also provided in sub-section (2) of Section 85 that no order of the Tribunal shall be questioned in any civil or criminal court. 24. The Gujarat Agricultural Lands Ceiling Act, 1960, was enacted to fix a ceiling on holdings of agricultural lands, and to provide for the acquisition and disposal of surplus agricultural lands. Chapter VI of the said Act deals with procedure, appeals and revision. Section 36 provides that any person aggrieved by an award made by the Tribunal under Section 24, or by the Collector under Section 28, may appeal to the Tribunal. Sub-section (3) of Section 36 provides that in deciding such appeal the Tribunal shall exercise all the powers which a Court has and follow the same procedure which the Court follows in deciding appeals from the decree or order of the original court under the CPC. Section 38 provides that notwithstanding anything contained in the Act, 1957, an application for revision may be made to the Tribunal constituted under the said A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Act, 1957, provides that in exercising the jurisdiction conferred upon the Tribunal, the Tribunal shall have all the powers of a civil court as enumerated therein and shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of Sections 195, 480 and 482 of the Cr.P.C., and that its proceedings shall be deemed to be judicial proceedings, within the meaning of Sections 193, 219 and 228 of the IPC. 27. The aforesaid observations made by the High Court, taking into consideration various statutes dealing with not only the revenue matters, but also covering other subjects, make it crystal clear that the Tribunal does not deal only with revenue matters provided under the Schedule I, but has also been conferred appellate/revisional powers under various other statutes. Most of those statutes provide that the Tribunal, while dealing with appeals, references, revisions, would act giving strict adherence to the procedure prescribed in the CPC, for deciding a matter as followed by the Civil Court and certain powers have also been conferred upon it, as provided in the Cr.P.C. and IPC. Thus, we do not have any hesitation in concurring with the finding recorded by the High Court that the T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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