Section 41 of the Specific Relief Act: The Injunctions a Court Cannot Grant

In one line

Section 41 lists ten situations in which a court cannot grant an injunction, and the textbook line about public duties is not one of them.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 41 of the Specific Relief Act 1963 provides that an injunction cannot be granted in ten enumerated situations, of which the most important for administrative law are clause (h), where equally efficacious relief can certainly be obtained by any other usual mode of proceeding except in case of breach of trust, clause (i), where the conduct of the plaintiff or his agents disentitles him to the assistance of the court, and clause (j), where the plaintiff has no personal interest in the matter.

What the section actually says

An injunction cannot be granted:

(a) to restrain any person from prosecuting a judicial proceeding pending at the institution of the suit in which the injunction is sought, unless such restraint is necessary to prevent a multiplicity of proceedings;

(b) to restrain any person from instituting or prosecuting any proceeding in a court not subordinate to that from which the injunction is sought;

(c) to restrain any person from applying to any legislative body;

(d) to restrain any person from instituting or prosecuting any proceeding in a criminal matter;

(e) to prevent the breach of a contract the performance of which would not be specifically enforced;

(f) to prevent, on the ground of nuisance, an act of which it is not reasonably clear that it will be a nuisance;

(g) to prevent a continuing breach in which the plaintiff has acquiesced;

(h) when equally efficacious relief can certainly be obtained by any other usual mode of proceeding except in case of breach of trust;

(ha) if it would impede or delay the progress or completion of any infrastructure project or interfere with the continued provision of a relevant facility related to it or services being the subject matter of such project;

(i) when the conduct of the plaintiff or his agents has been such as to disentitle him to the assistance of the court;

(j) when the plaintiff has no personal interest in the matter.

A correction a student should carry away

Textbooks and older answers say that a civil court cannot grant an injunction interfering with the public duties of a department of Government. That was section 56(d) of the Specific Relief Act 1877. It is not in the Act of 1963. The list above is the whole of section 41, and it contains no such clause.

What keeps a civil court out of public law today is different and less absolute:

Clause (h). Where a petition under Article 226 is an equally efficacious usual mode, an injunction will be refused.