‘State legislatures can’t let people appeal directly to SC’

Source: Times of India dated 16.10.2019

-- Dhananjay Mahapatra

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a state legislature could not enact a law permitting an aggrieved litigant to appeal directly to the apex court, bypassing the state high court.

Striking down Section 13 (2) of the Chhattisgarh Rent Control Act, 2011, providing appeal directly to the SC, a bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant said, “The state cannot enact a legislation providing an appeal directly to the SC. That would amount to intruding upon the jurisdiction of the Union, which the state legislature does not have.”

Writing the judgment for the bench, Justice Gupta said, “We are constrained to observe that the men who drafted the Act did not even consider the hierarchy of courts. As pointed above, the Rent Control Tribunal is headed by a retired judge of the high court or a district judge. What is the rationale of making such an order (of tribunal) appealable directly to the Supreme Court? We see no reason why the supervisory jurisdiction of the high court should be excluded.

“We, therefore, have no doubt in our mind that Section 13(2) of the Act, in so far as it provides an appeal directly to the SC, is totally illegal, ultra vires the Constitution and beyond the scope of the powers of the state legislature. Section 13(2) of the Act is accordingly struck down.”

The SC said Entry 77 of the Union List gave power to the Union in respect of jurisdiction and power of the SC, a power which could not be exercised by the state legislature. It also said a bare reading of Entry 65 clearly indicated that state legislature had no power to enact any legislation relating to jurisdiction and power of the SC.

Section 13 of the Chhattisgarh Act had provided that appeal against the order of a rent controller would be filed before the Rent Control Tribunal. But Section 13(2), which has been declared unconstitutional and struck down by the SC, provided that an appeal against the tribunal’s order would, as a matter of right, go before the SC.