Clause 15 appeal barred where a Look Out Circular challenge arises from ongoing criminal prosecutions and criminal writ jurisdiction.

An intra-court appeal under Clause 15 of the Madras High Court Letters Patent is not maintainable where the writ petition challenges a Look Out Circular linked to pending criminal cases. The court treated the relief sought as aimed at removing a restraint connected with ongoing prosecutions so the petitioner could leave India, making the matter one arising from the exercise of writ jurisdiction in the criminal law domain rather than a civil writ jurisdiction. On that basis, the appeal was barred and the writ order was not interfered with.

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Issues: Whether an intra-court appeal under Clause 15 of the Madras High Court Letters Patent was maintainable against the dismissal of the writ petition challenging a Look Out Circular, and whether the writ petition arose from the exercise of criminal jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: The relief sought in the writ petition was to remove the restraint created by the Look Out Circular so that the appellant could leave India notwithstanding pending criminal cases, including proceedings arising under penal statutes and prosecution-related action. The nature of the challenge, its immediate object, and the consequences sought to be avoided were all connected with ongoing criminal prosecutions. In such circumstances, the jurisdiction exercised by the Single Judge was not a civil writ jurisdiction divorced from criminal process, but a writ jurisdiction in the criminal law domain. An appeal barred by Clause 15 would therefore not lie.

Conclusion: The intra-court appeal was not maintainable and the challenge to the writ order failed.

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