Report No. 69
VII. Power Otherwise Vested in Courts
6.16. Contempt of Court Act-The exercise of power otherwise falling on civil and revenue courts.-
With reference to the Contempt of Courts Act, it may be that on the terms of that particular statute, an officer or a tribunal not forming part of the ordinary judicial hierarchy may be held to be a court, when he exercises a power which would otherwise have fallen on the ordinary civil and revenue courts of the land.1
This concludes our consideration of the principal tests adopted for determining whether a particular body is a court.
1. Thakur Jugal Kishore v. Sitammarhi Central Cooperative Bank Ltd., (1969) 1 SCJ 559.
6.16A. Right of Appeal.-
We are not concerned in this Report with the question whether there is a right of appeal when a court is vested with certain special jurisdiction. 1 That aspect need not, therefore, be considered.
We shall now consider the question (a) whether the definition in the Act needs an amendment, and (b) if so, in what direction. This necessitates an examination in detail of the position regarding certain bodies. We begin with administrative courts.
1. The case-law on this subject is reviewed in S.D. Transport Company v. Madan Lal, AIR 1968 Punj 277.
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