Appellate authority can’t cure jurisdictional defect: K'taka HC

The defect of jurisdiction of the original authority cannot be cured by the Appellate Authority despite having jurisdiction to consider the appeal, the high court has said.

Justice M Nagaprasanna made the statement while quashing the order cancelling the licence of Gurushree Hitech Multi-Speciality Hospital, Bengaluru.

The licence was revoked based on directives from N Munirathna, former horticulture minister and Rajarajeshwarinagar MLA, in response to complaints over its exorbitant charges.

The Deputy Commissioner and District Registration Authority had conducted the proceedings and cancelled the hospital’s registration on August 20, 2022. The hospital challenged the order before the high court and subsequently filed an appeal before the Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare, which affirmed the original order.

Also Read | Reinstated KSRTC workman entitled to encashment of earned leave: HC

The hospital moved the high court again challenging the order passed in the appeal proceedings. Justice Nagaprasanna noted that the original order, passed by the Deputy Commissioner and District Registration Authority, itself was without jurisdiction.

After the onset of Covid-19, a different committee was set up for the medical establishments in the BBMP limits. The court noted that by operation of the amendment to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act, the BBMP chief commissioner is the original authority.

“Merely because the petitioner files an appeal to the appropriate authority against an order of the original authority, which was without jurisdiction and the Appellate Authority considering the appeal on its merit would not cure the want of jurisdiction of the original Authority. If the foundation is faulty, the super-structure of any amount of strength cannot cure the defect,” Justice Nagaprasanna said.

The court further said: “If the original Authority is coram non-judice, the competent Appellate Authority, by considering the appeal, cannot breathe life into such original order and make it coram judice. It is by now a hackneyed principle of law that if a statute prescribes performance of duties upon certain authorities, those duties shall be performed only by those authorities and no one else, as error or jurisdiction always cuts at the root of the matter.”