Report No. 104

Chapter 10

Main Recommendations

10.1. Main Recommendations.-

The main recommendations made in this Report may, for the sake of convenience, be summarised as under:-

(1) The short title of the Judicial Officers Protection Act should be revised to read as "The Judges Protection Act, 1850".1

(2) The Act should be extended to the whole of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.2

(3) The provision in the Act for the protection of Judges should be revised3 as under:-

"No Judge shall be liable to be sued in any Civil Court for anything which is done by him when acting judicially, in the exercise of any power which is given to him by law, or which in good faith he believes to be given to him by law."

(4) As regards ministerial action taken in pursuance of Judicial acts, the relevant provision of the Act should be revised so as to read as under.-

"Nothing which is done in pursuance of, or which is warranted by, the judgment or order of a court of justice, if done whilst such judgment or order remains in force, shall render a person liable to be sued in any civil court, notwithstanding that the court may have had no jurisdiction to pass such judgment or order, provided the person doing the act in good faith believes that the court had such jurisdiction."4

(5) A new provision should be inserted in the Act to the effect that words and expressions defined in the Indian Panel Code and used but not defined in the Act, have the meanings respectively assigned to them by the Code.5

1. Para. 4.1, supra.

2. Para. 4.4, supra.

3. Paras. 5.4 and 6.1, supra.

4. Para. 7.1, supra.

5. Para. 8.5, supra.