Salmond defines the law of procedure as that branch of the law which governs the process of litigation. It embodies the rule governing the institution and prosecution of civil and criminal proceedings. Salmond says that the law of procedure is the law of actions, using the word actions in a wide sense to include all legal proceedings, civil or criminal.
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Substantive law is concerned with the end which the administration of justice seeks and deals with the rights and remedies.
Procedural and Substantive Law:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The procedural law can be distinguished from the substantive law on the following grounds:
1. Procedural law governs the process of litigation and relates lo actions of civil and criminal proceedings; substantive law is that portion of law which concerns the purposes and subject-match of litigation.
2. Procedural law deals with the means and instruments by which the ends of administration of justice are to be attained; substantive law deals with the ends of the administration of justice.
3. Procedural law regulates the conduct and relations of courts and litigants in respect of the litigation; substantive law determines the conduct and relations of the parties inter se in respect of the matter litigated.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
4. Procedural law regulates the affairs inside the courts; substantive law relates to matters outside the courts.
5. Procedural law governs the institution and prosecution of civil and criminal proceedings; substantive law defines the right and the remedy.
(b) It is an erroneous distinction to treat substantive law as defining rights and procedural law as determining remedies for two reasons: first, because there are many rights which belong to the sphere of procedure in the same way as substantive law creates rights, e.g., a right of appeal; and, secondly, because the rules defining the remedy may in some cases be part of the substantive law; in other words, the whole law of remedies does not belong to procedure.
The substantive parts of criminal law deal not with crimes alone but with punishment also and in civil law rules as to the measure of damages and power to recover them are in the nature of a remedial right and pertain to the substantive law.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The Criminal Procedure Code and the Law of Evidence are to a preponderating large extent the laws of procedure while the Indian Penal Code, the Transfer of Property Act and the Indian Contract Act are substantive laws.
The Civil Procedure Code consists of two parts, the first containing sections which are more or less of a substantive character laying down the general principles, and the second consisting of Orders relating to the method in which the general principles are applied and they are procedural.