Page:White Paper on Indian States (1950).pdf/128

 States was extremely limited. The original jurisdiction at this Court extended only to disputes between any two or more of the following parties; that is to say, the Federation, any of the Provinces or any of the Acceding States, if the dispute involved any question on which "the existence or extent of a legal right" depended. In respect of a dispute to which a State was a party the jurisdiction of the Court could be invoked only if the dispute concerned the interpretation of the Act, the Instrument of Accession and like matters arising out of the constitutional relationship between the Federation and the State. Judgments in such cases were to be merely declaratory; "in other words they need not involve any consequential relief". The appellate jurisdiction of the Federal Court was likewise limited to questions of law concerning the intepretationinterpretation [sic] of the Act and the Instruments or Agreements governing the constitutional relationship between the States and the Federation.

233. Even in this limited field, an appeal to the Federal Court was to be by way of a special case to be stated for the opinion of the Federal Court by the High Court of the State. If the Federal Court wanted to move the judicial machinery of the State, the Court was required to send letters of request to the Ruler of the State and the Ruler was to cause such communication to be made to the High Court or to any other judicial or civil authority as the circumstances required. Thus, even in the limited field of the jurisdiction of the Federal Court in and over the States the writ of the Court could not run in the States in the normal way.

234. Nor did the Constitution define, or empower the federal authority to do so, the constitution of the High Courts of the States. Section 215 of the Government of India Act, 1935, which enabled the Federal Legislature to confer "ancillary powers" upon the Federal Court did not enable the legislature to enlarge the powers of the Federal Court in respect of the States as they were not required to accept the corresponding entry in the Federal Legislative List, i.e., entry 53. Even if they accepted it, the powers conferred were to be only supplemental and not inconsistent with the provisions of the Act. The only authority which the Act gave to the federal authority in respect of the Courts in the Acceding States was that contained in Section 217 which empowered the Governor General to declare, in consultation with the Ruler concerned, the High Court of an Acceding State to be a High Court for the purposes of any provisions of the Act. It was inconceivable that this provision could be invoked in the case of the High Courts of all the Acceding States. The Act was silent as to what would happen to the rest.