The phrase "cribbed, cabined, and confined," frequently encountered in legal discourse, is often mistakenly attributed to Justice Vivian Bose or Justice P.N. Bhagwati. However, its earliest judicial use can be traced back to Justice Graham of the Calcutta High Court back in 1929 in Ahamed Ali Shaikh v. Sabed Sarkar 1929 SCC OnLine Cal 53.
In that case, he observed: "Now, in the first place, it is to be observed that while the trend of the decisions is that it is the imminence of a breach of the peace as disclosed in the police report which creates jurisdiction, it cannot in my opinion be held that the Magistrate is “cabined cribbed and confined,” so to speak, within the four corners of the report."
The phrase "cribbed, cabined, and confined" is now most commonly used in discussions on the scope of equality, notably in E.P. Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu (1974) 4 SCC 3), where Justice P.N. Bhagwati observed:
'Equality is a dynamic concept with many aspects and dimensions and it cannot be 'cribbed, cabined and confined' within traditional and doctrinaire limits.'
Justice Vivian Bose used the phrase in Ram Singh v. State of Delhi 1951 SCC 331 in the following words - 'Right to personal freedom is fundamental and even power of Parliament to hedge it around with fetters is cribbed, cabined and confined.'
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-Anubhav Verma
