ALTERNATIVE REMEDY vis-à-vis WRIT PETITION: MAINTAINABILITY

With the pendency of the cases on the rise and judicial courts opting for pro-ADR approach, it is essential to understand that referring a dispute to the available alternative remedy may not necessarily achieve the objective of speedy resolution of dispute. Whether the existence of an alternative remedy debars the jurisdiction of High Courts under Article 226? Under what circumstance can the High Court exercise its jurisdiction under the Article 226 despite the alternative remedy being available? Let us have a look at the settled judicial pronouncements with this regard.

In the case of U.P. Power Transmission Corp. Ltd. &Anr. v. CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd, and Anr. (May 2021), the Hon’ble Supreme Court reiterated that the writ petition can be entertained even if alternate remedy is available when the writ is filed for enforcement of any fundamental rights, violation of natural justice, impugned order is passed without jurisdiction and when the vires of an act is challenged. Reliance was placed on the case of Whirlpool Corporation v. Registrar of Trademarks, Mumbai and ors. Further, in the case of Radha Krishna industries v. State of Himachal Pradesh, the Supreme Court laid that if there are disputed question so fat then the High Court may refer the dispute to the alternate remedy, however, if the dispute can be tried some rarely then it may not be referred to the alternative remedy. Furthermore, if a right has been created by any statute that describes for a particular remedy or any procedure for enforcing that right then the discretionary remedy under article 226 cannot be exercised. The statutory remedy must be exhausted before opting for discretionary remedy. It should also be observed by the courts that if the alternate remedy is providing efficacious remedy, then Article 226 should not be invoked. The above stated principles have been iterated consistently in the following judgements Seth Chand Ratan v. Pandit Durga Prasad, Babubhai Muljibhai Patel v. Nandlal Khodidas Barot and Rajasthan SEB v. Union of India.