Writ Jurisdiction: Article 226, and the Five Writs

In one line

Article 226 is the widest jurisdiction any court in India has: it lies for fundamental rights and for any other purpose, in every High Court, throughout its territory.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: article 226(1) empowers every High Court, notwithstanding article 32, to issue to any person or authority, including in appropriate cases any Government, within the territories in relation to which it exercises jurisdiction, directions, orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, or any of them, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by Part III and for any other purpose; and article 226(2) extends that power to a High Court within whose territories the cause of action wholly or in part arises, notwithstanding that the seat of the Government or authority is elsewhere.

Article 226(1): the words that matter

Notwithstanding anything in article 32, every High Court shall have power, throughout the territories in relation to which it exercises jurisdiction, to issue to any person or authority, including in appropriate cases, any Government, within those territories, directions, orders or writs, including writs in the nature of the five, or any of them, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by Part III and for any other purpose.

Take the phrases one at a time, because each is examinable.

"Notwithstanding anything in article 32": the High Court's power is not subordinate to the Supreme Court's, and the existence of article 32 does not cut it down.

"Every High Court": not three, as before 1950, but every one, and throughout its territories, not only in a Presidency Town.

"To any person or authority, including in appropriate cases, any Government": the writ runs against the Government. In 1780 that proposition took an armed confrontation to test.

"And for any other purpose": this is the phrase that makes article 226 wider than article 32. A High Court may issue a writ to correct any illegality within its supervisory reach, not only a breach of a fundamental right.

Article 226(2) adds the cause of action test: the power may be exercised by any High Court in relation to whose territories the cause of action wholly or in part arises, even if the seat of the Government or authority is outside them. That provision was inserted by the Fifteenth Amendment to solve a real problem: without it, only the High Court where a central authority sat could be moved against it.

Article 226(3) provides that where an interim order is made ex parte against a party, that party may apply for vacation of the order, and the application must be disposed of within two weeks or the order stands vacated.