AIR 1925 PRIVY COUNCIL 180

Privy Council

(FROM NAGPUR)

Hon'ble Judge(s): Viscount Haldane, Lord Dunedin, Lord Atkinson, Lord Sumner, Lord Salvesen , JJJ

**Privy Council-Criminal case-Privy Council is not a Court of Criminal Appeal-Mere mistake in exercise of jurisdiction is not enough to sustain appeal but justice must have been set at naught. The power of the Privy Council to entertain appeals arises not from the relation of the Board to the Court below, as a Court of Criminal appeal, but as the Privy Council advising the Sovereign with regard to the exercise of the prerogative. The prerogative is that remnant of the power of the Crown which remains to the Crown to interfere with tribunals of Justice. With India's march to self-government, this prerogative has been diminishing. Therefore, unless it can be proved that there was no proper trial at all, that the forms of all judicial procedure were disregarded, not merely according to local ordinances but according to the unvarying character, which is common to all, the Privy Council cannot interfere. If there is anything very very gross, it might come under the same category, but even then, the Crown has to be extraordinarily cautious in asserting the survivor even of that very restricted prerogative which existed fifty years ago, but which may not exist now. The Privy Council cannot take cognizance of a mere mistake which the Court in India has made in the exercise of its jurisdiction. Where justice has not been set at naught, the Privy Council has no jurisd....