This Act may be called the 5[Foreign] Jurisdiction Act, 1947.

In this Act,

(a) 6[foreign] jurisdiction means any jurisdiction which by treaty, agreement, grant, usage, sufferance or other lawful means the Central Government has for the time being in or in relation to any area outside 7[India];

(b) jurisdiction includes rights, power and authority.

(1) It shall be lawful for the Central Government to exercise 8[foreign] jurisdiction in such manner as it thinks fit.

(2) The Central Government may 9delegate any such jurisdiction as aforesaid to any officer or authority in such manner and to such extent as it thinks fit.

(1) The Central Government may, by 10notification in the Official Gazette, make such orders as may seem to it expedient for the effective exercise of any 11[foreign] jurisdiction of the Central Government.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by sub-section (1), any order made under that sub-section may provide

(a) for determining the law and procedure to be observed, whether by applying with or without modifications all or any of the provisions of any enactment in force in any State or otherwise;

(b) for determining the persons who are to exercise jurisdiction, either generally or in particular cases or classes of cases, and the powers to be exercised by them;

(c) for determining the Courts, Judges, Magistrates and authorities by whom, and for regulating the manner in which any jurisdiction auxiliary or incidental to or consequential on the jurisdiction exercised under this Act is to be exercised within any State; and

(d) for regulating the amount, collection and application of fees.

Every act and thing done, whether before or after the commencement of this Act in pursuance of any 12[foreign] jurisdiction of the Central Government in an area outside 13[India] shall be as valid as if it had been done according to the local law then in force in that area.

(1) If in any proceeding, civil or criminal, in a Court established in 14[India] or by the authority of the Central Government outside 14[India], any question arises as to the existence or extent of any 15[foreign] jurisdiction of the Central Government, the Secretary to the Government of India in the appropriate department shall, on the application of the Court, send to the Court the decision of the Central Government on the question, and that decision shall for the purposes of the proceeding be final.

(2) The Court shall send to the said Secretary, in a document under the seal of the Court or signed by a Judge of the Court, questions framed so as properly to raise the question, and sufficient answers to those questions shall be returned to the Court by the Secretary and those answers shall on production thereof be conclusive evidence of the matters therein contained.

(1) The Extra-Provincial Jurisdiction Ordinance, 1947 (15 of 1947), is hereby repealed.

(2) Any order made, anything done or any action taken in exercise of any power conferred by or under the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have been made, done or taken in exercise of powers conferred by or under this Act as in this Act had commenced on the 27th day of August, 1947.

1. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

2. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

3. The words the Provinces of omitted by the A.O. 1950.

4. Ed.: Act 47 of 1947 repealed by Act 17 of 2015, S. 2 & Sch. I. See also S. 4 of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2015: 4. Savings. The repeal by this Act of any enactment shall not affect any Act in which such enactment has been applied, incorporated or referred to; and this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect or consequences of anything already done or suffered, or any right, title, obligation or liability already acquired, accrued or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim or demand, or any indemnity already granted, or the proof of any past act or thing; nor shall this Act affect any principle or rule of law, or established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice or procedure, or existing usage, custom, privilege, restriction, exemption, office or appointment, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised or derived by, in or from any enactment hereby repealed; nor shall the repeal by this Act of any enactment provide or restore any jurisdiction, office, custom, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure or other matter or thing not now existing or in force.

5. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

6. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

7. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for the provinces .

8. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

9. For such delegation see Gazette of India, 1948, Pt. I, pp. 358 and 431.

10. For such notifications, see Gazette of India, 1948, pt. I, pp. 44, 80, 201, 248, 281, 335, 336, 433, 454, 455 and Gazette of India, 1948, Extraodinary, p. 75.

11. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

12. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .

13. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for the ptovinces .

14. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for the Provinces .

15. Substituted by the A.O. 1950, for extra provincial .