Scrutton LJ said: ‘The writ of certiorari is a very old and high prerogative writ drawn up for the purpose of enabling the Court of King’s Bench to control the action of inferior Courts and to make it certain that they shall not exceed their jurisdiction; and therefore the writ of certiorari is intended to bring into the High Court the decision of the inferior tribunal, in order that the High Court may be certified whether the decision is within the jurisdiction of the inferior Court. There has been a great deal of discussion and a large number of cases extending the meaning of ‘Court’. It is not necessary that it should be a Court in the sense in which this Court is a Court; it is enough if it is exercising, after hearing evidence, judicial functions in the sense that it has to decide on evidence between a proposal and an opposition; and it is not necessary to be strictly a Court; if it is a tribunal which has to decide rights after hearing evidence and opposition, it is amenable to the writ of certiorari; and I do not discuss the nature of the writ, because very elaborate discussions of it will be found in the recent cases of Rex v. Electricity Commissioners and Rex v. Minister of Health.’
Scrutton LJ
[1931] 2 KB 215
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Rex v Northumberland Compensation Appeal Tribunal, ex Parte Shaw CA 19-Dec-1951
A tribunal had wrongly calculated his ‘service’ when assessing the applicant’s compensation for loss of office as clerk to the Hospital Board. There was no right of appeal against its decisions. The Attorney General had argued that certiorari would . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 September 2021; Ref: scu.442727 br>