UPSC Prelims 2022 Question:

With reference to the writs issued by the Courts in India

consider the following statements:

1. Mandamus will not lie against a private organization unless it is entrusted with a public duty.
2. Mandamus will not lie against a Company even though it may be a Government Company.
3. Any public minded person can be a petitioner to move the Court to obtain the writ of Quo Warranto.
   
   

Which of the statements given above are correct?

Explanation:

• The Supreme Court in Binny Ltd. and Anr. v. V. Sadasivan and Ors held that writ of mandamus can be exercised against a private body but there must be a public law element and it cannot be exercised to enforce purely private contract entered into between the parties. The scope of mandamus is determined by the nature of the duty to be enforced, rather than the identity of the authority against whom it is sought. If the private body is discharging a public function and the denial of any right is in connection with the public duty imposed on such body, the public law remedy can be enforced. So, statement 1 is correct.
  
  

• • In Praga Tools Corporation v. Shri C.A. Imanual & Ors case, the company being a non-statutory body and one incorporated under the Companies Act there was neither a statutory nor a public duty imposed on it by a statute in respect of which enforcement could be sought by means of a mandamus nor was there in its workmen any corresponding right for enforcement of any such statutory or public duty. The High Court held that no writ petition for a mandamus or an order in the nature of mandamus could lie against the company.  So, statement 2 is correct.
    
    

• Quo-Warranto writ can be sought by any interested person and not necessarily by the aggrieved person. So, statement 3 is correct.
  
  

Therefore, option (4) is the correct answer.

Subject: Polity| Judiciary