Select the correct statements from the following :
(a) Prohibition is issued by a Higher Court to a Lower Court or tribunal and is intended to prohibit it from exceeding its jurisdiction.
(b) Writ of

Question

Select the correct statements from the following :
(a) Prohibition is issued by a Higher Court to a Lower Court or tribunal and is intended to prohibit it from exceeding its jurisdiction.
(b) Writ of prohibition can be issued against administrative agencies.
(c) Writ of prohibition is issued against judicial and quasi judicial bodies.

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (2), 'Only (a), (c)'. Take the three statements in turn. Statement (a) is a textbook description of the writ: prohibition literally means 'to forbid', and it is issued by a higher court to a lower court or tribunal to stop it from exceeding its jurisdiction or from usurping a jurisdiction it does not possess. It is a preventive writ, issued while the proceedings below are still going on, and its effect is to halt them. Statement (c) states the writ's scope correctly: prohibition lies against judicial and quasi-judicial authorities, that is, against bodies exercising the function of deciding disputes according to law. Statement (b) is the one that fails. Prohibition is NOT available against administrative authorities; nor is it available against legislative bodies or against private individuals and bodies. Its whole rationale is jurisdictional discipline within the adjudicating machinery, so a body that is not adjudicating is outside its reach. Two statements standing and one falling, the answer is the option that names (a) and (c) — option (2). The single most useful thing to carry away is why statement (b) is a trap rather than a mistake: the neighbouring writ of certiorari, which is often taught in the same breath as prohibition, was once similarly confined to judicial and quasi-judicial authorities, but the Supreme Court held in 1991 that certiorari can be issued even against administrative authorities where they affect the rights of individuals. Prohibition did not travel with it. The proposition in statement (b) is true of certiorari and false of prohibition, and a candidate who has learnt the two writs as a single unit will mark it correct.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This option keeps the true statement (a) but pairs it with the false statement (b) and discards the true statement (c). It is the answer a candidate reaches by importing the post-1991 position on certiorari — that it may be issued against administrative authorities affecting individual rights — and applying it to prohibition, which was not extended in that way. Prohibition remains confined to judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. Note also the shape of the trap: the option keeps the statement everybody accepts and swaps the disputed pair, so a candidate who verifies only the first statement and then scans for an option containing it can land here.  (c) This option drops the plainest statement in the set, (a), which is simply the definition of the writ, and retains the false statement (b). Statement (a) is correct in every particular: prohibition runs from a higher court to a lower court or tribunal, and its object is to prevent that body from exceeding its jurisdiction. There is no reading on which it can be rejected. An option that discards the one statement you are certain of should be discarded in turn — a useful discipline in statement-based questions generally, because it lets you eliminate on the basis of what you know rather than on the basis of what you are guessing.  (d) 'All of the above' is offered eleven times in this paper, and this is one of them. An option of this kind is correct only when every statement in the set can be positively shown to hold, and it is wrong the moment a single one fails. Here statement (b) fails: prohibition does not lie against administrative agencies. So the option collapses. Note the useful working rule this illustrates — an escape option is never a refuge from uncertainty. If you cannot establish each statement independently, 'all of the above' is a guess dressed as an answer; if you can, you did not need the shortcut in the first place.

Concept: The Supreme Court under Article 32 and the High Courts under Article 226 may issue five writs, and each has a distinct target and reach. HABEAS CORPUS, 'to have the body of', orders a person detaining another to produce him before the court, which then examines the legality of the detention and frees him if it is unlawful; it lies against both public authorities and private individuals. MANDAMUS, 'we command', orders a public official or body to perform a public duty it has failed or refused to perform; it does not lie against a private individual, nor to enforce a discretionary duty or a contractual obligation, nor against the President or a Governor. PROHIBITION, 'to forbid', runs from a higher court to a lower court or tribunal to stop it exceeding its jurisdiction, and lies only against judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. CERTIORARI, 'to be certified', runs from a higher court to a lower court or tribunal either to transfer a pending case to itself or to quash the order already made, on grounds of excess or want of jurisdiction or error of law. QUO WARRANTO, 'by what authority', enquires into the legality of a person's claim to a public office.

State PCS 2026 Q74 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q74 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer