Mandamus cannot bypass a subsisting superior order when the court lacks power to quash it directly.

A High Court cannot issue mandamus to a subordinate authority to disregard a subsisting superior order when the court lacks jurisdiction to quash that order directly. If the relief sought would require the court to treat the superior revisional order as a nullity, the writ is unavailable until that order is set aside by a competent court. The court cannot do indirectly, through mandamus, what it has no power to do directly. The request for mandamus was therefore rejected.

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Issues: Whether a High Court can issue a writ of mandamus directing a local custodian to disregard or treat as a nullity an order passed by the Custodian General outside its territorial jurisdiction when the superior order has not been quashed by a court competent to do so.

Analysis: The relief sought would necessarily require the Court to examine and effectively nullify the order of the Custodian General made under revisional powers. As the Court had no power to quash that order, it could not indirectly achieve the same result by commanding the local authority to ignore it. Until the superior order is set aside by a competent court, it must be treated as valid and subsisting, leaving no basis for the issue of mandamus.

Conclusion: The answer is in the negative. The writ of mandamus could not be issued in the circumstances.

Ratio Decidendi: A High Court cannot, by mandamus to a subordinate authority within its jurisdiction, compel disregard of a subsisting superior order that it has no jurisdiction to quash; it cannot do indirectly what it cannot do directly.

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