Caveat

Context: Recently, the CJI reprimanded a student for filing a caveat in a petition seeking menstrual leave.

About Caveat

• A caveat refers to a “formal notice requesting the court to refrain from taking some specified action without giving prior notice to the person lodging the caveat.”
• The person lodging the caveat is called a “caveator”.
• The term “caveat” is not expressly defined anywhere except in the Calcutta High Court’s 1978 ruling in the “Nirmal Chandra Dutta vs Girindra Narayan Roy” case.
• It is a precautionary measure taken against the grant of probate or letters of administration, as the case may be, by the person lodging the caveat.
• Section 148A of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) , elaborating upon a caveat was inserted by the Amendment Act of 1976, after the Law Commission’s recommendation.
• Any person can lodge a caveat in a Court.
• The caveator or the person lodging is also required to serve a notice of the caveat by “registered post” to the person on whose plea they are lodging the application
• It was recently used in the  “Shailendra Mani Tripathi v. Union of India & Others”, a petition seeking menstrual leave for female students and working women across Indian institutions.

Source: The Indian Express

Previous Year Questions

Q.1)  With reference to the writs issued by the Courts in India, consider the following statements: (2022)

1. Mandamus will not lie against a private organization unless it is entrusted with a public duty.
2. Mandamus will not lie against a Company even though it may be a Government Company.
3. Any public-minded person can be a petitioner to move the Court to obtain the writ of Quo Warranto.

Which of the statements given above is correct?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Q.2) With reference to Indian  Judiciary, consider the following statements. (2021)

1. Any retired judge of the Supreme Court of India can be called back to sit by the Chief Justice of India with the prior permission of the President of India.
2. A High court in India has the power to review its own judgment as the Supreme Court does.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2