The Constitutionality Of The Jurisdiction Of The Investments And Securities Tribunal Vis-À-Vis The Jurisdiction Of The Federal High Court
By Abia Friday, Lagos, Nigeria. It is a well established principle of our law and that of the courts that a court or tribunal in Nigeria must at all times limit itself to the powers granted it by the law establishing it so as not to render its decisions, no matter the grammatical beauty and proceedings, no matter how well conducted, a nullity. The Black’s Law Dictionary defines jurisdiction as: “The power of the court to decide a matter in controversy and presupposes the existence of a duly constituted court with control over the subject matter and the parties”. The Supreme Court in Attorney General of Anambra State v Attorney General of the Federation (1993) 7 SCNJ at 249 per Ogundare (JSC) also defined the term as: “The authority a court has to decide matters before it or take cognizance of matters presented in a formal way for its decision”. The import of the above provisions is that where the court lacks jurisdiction, it would not be able to exercise any judicia