Hon'ble High Courts shall entertain the Writ petitions and exercise their discretionary powers as provided in terms of Article 226 of the Constitution of India, only in exceptional circumstances, where either the Adjudicating Authority acted without jurisdiction or there was violation of the principles of Natural Justice.
In the case of Whirlpool Corpn. v. Registrar of Trade Marks [1998] 8 SCC 1
wherein, the Supreme Court laid down the triple test for entertaining a writ petition despite availability of the remedy of an appeal in contractual matters i.e.,
firstly if the action of the respondent is illegal and without jurisdiction,
secondly if the principles of natural justice have been violated and
thirdly if the petitioner's fundamental rights have been violated.
In the case of Barik Biswas vs Union of India & Ors., Hon'ble High Court of Delhi also dismissed the writ petition and held that
"the action of coming to this Court is premature and therefore, this Court is of the view that since the petitioners have effective and efficacious remedy under PMLA, necessitating institution of the petition by invoking extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court is not appropriate at this stage. If this Court were to enter into the merits of this case at this stage, it would amount to scuttling the statutorily engrafted mechanism i.e. PMLA."
However, the Hon'ble High Court of Madras in the case of A.Kamarunnisa Ghori and Others , accepted the Writ Petition on a limited point, where the Enforcement Directorate and Adjudicating Authority interpreted the law in a way different from the view point of the Hon'ble Court. Against the argument of presence of alternate remedy, the Hon'ble Court held that "in view of the fact that the order of the Appellate Tribunal is ultimately subject to an appeal to this Court under Section 42 of the Act. By the time the petitioners go before the Appellate Authority and thereafter come up before this Court under Section 42, the petitioners would have long lost possession of their properties" and hence prejudiced.
