Section 151 — Saving of inherent powers of Court
The Code’s most-invoked provision. It declares that nothing in the Code limits the Court’s inherent power to make whatever orders are necessary for the ends of justice, or to prevent abuse of its own process. The power is not created by § 151 — it is inherent in every court, and merely saved here.
How to read Section 151
Ends of justice
Where the Code is silent, the Court may make such orders as are necessary to do justice between the parties.
Prevent abuse
The Court may act to stop its own process being misused — vexatious, fraudulent or oppressive use of the court’s machinery.
Saved, not conferred
§ 151 does not grant the power — it preserves a power every court inherently has, and which the Code is not to be read as cutting down.
The bare Act
Nothing in this Code shall be deemed to limit or otherwise affect the inherent power of the Court to make such orders as may be necessary for the ends of justice or to prevent abuse of the process of the Court.
In short: the Court keeps an inherent power — not written out as a specific rule — to pass any order needed to do justice or to stop its process being abused; and the Code must not be read as taking that power away.
→ § 151 is a saving clause, not a source of power. Inherent powers are supplementary: they fill the gaps the Code leaves — they cannot be used in conflict with, or to override, an express provision. They are exercised sparingly, in exceptional cases, ex debito justitiae (as the justice of the case demands).
The two limbs of the power
To make an order justice requires where the Code provides no specific remedy — so a litigant is not denied relief merely because no rule fits.
- Recall / set aside an order obtained by fraud or without jurisdiction
- Consolidate connected suits, or stay one suit pending another
- Permit a necessary inquiry or correct an obvious injustice
- Grant restitution or relief beyond the letter of a specific section, where justice needs it
To stop the court’s own machinery being turned into an instrument of oppression, fraud or harassment.
- Dismiss or stay a vexatious / sham or clearly frivolous proceeding
- Set aside a decree or order procured by fraud on the court
- Prevent multiplicity of proceedings over the same matter
- Strike out scandalous or oppressive matter; restrain a party abusing the process
Key terms decoded
A power that belongs to a court by its very nature as a court of justice — not derived from any particular section. § 151 preserves it.
A direction of construction: the Code is not to be read as cutting down the inherent power — even where it is silent.
Doing substantial justice between the parties — the positive limb, used where no express provision supplies the needed order.
Using the court’s procedure for an improper, oppressive or fraudulent purpose — the protective limb, used to stop such misuse.
Inherent power fills gaps; it cannot be exercised contrary to an express provision of the Code, nor to do what the law forbids.
Used with great caution, in exceptional circumstances — never as a routine substitute for a specific remedy the Code provides.
The picture — a reserve power, kept within bounds
§ 151 gives the Court a reserve of authority for the cases the Code-makers could not foresee — to do justice and to police its own process — while the bound (no conflict with express provisions) keeps that reserve from swallowing the Code’s scheme.
Part by part — the one sentence
Nothing in this Code shall be deemed to limit or otherwise affect the inherent power of the Court…
A rule of construction: the Code is not to be read as taking away the court’s inherent power — the power is recognised and preserved, not created.
…to make such orders as may be necessary for the ends of justice…
The positive limb — to make whatever order justice requires where the Code offers no specific remedy.
…or to prevent abuse of the process of the Court.
The protective limb — to stop the court’s process being misused for an oppressive or fraudulent end.
The settled principles
A wide power — disciplined by clear limits
How the courts have confined and applied § 151.
Leading authorities
Connected provisions
Section 151 is the Code’s great residuary power. It backs the specific provisions throughout the Code — e.g. amendment (§ 152–153), restitution (§ 144) and the rule-based remedies — supplying justice where they fall short, but never displacing them.