Maintainability of Review Petition When Special Leave Petition Dismissed : The Law

Justice P. Sathasivam
Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court in Bakshi Dev Raj Vs. Sudhir Kumar has examined the law relating to maintainability of a Review Petition in cases where a party has preferred an Special Leave Petition, at the first instance and the same was subsequently dismissed. Under the Code of Civil Procedure, a review is not maintainable when the party prefers an appeal against an order of the Court. The question raised in the present case was whether a review petition would lie, before the concerned Court, once a Special Leave Petition has been dismissed as withdrawn before the Supreme Court. The relevant extracts of the judgment are reproduced hereinbelow;

Maintainability of Review Petition 

16. Now, let us consider the maintainability of the review petition filed before the High Court after dismissal of SLP (C) No. 10939 of 2008 before this Court. It is not in dispute that the High Court, by order dated 18.03.2008, based on the statement of both counsel disposed of Second Appeal No. 19 of 2005 by modifying the decree as stated therein. Against the said order of the High Court, the appellants preferred the above said SLP before this Court. By order dated 14.05.2008, this Court after hearing the counsel for the appellants passed the following order: "Learned counsel for the petitioner prays to withdraw the petition. Prayer made is accepted. The special leave petition is dismissed as withdrawn" A reading of the above order makes it clear that based on the request of the counsel, the SLP came to be dismissed as withdrawn. It is also clear that there is no permission or reservation or liberty for taking further action. However, dismissal of SLP is not a bar for filing review before the same Court. This aspect was considered by a three-Judge Bench of this Court in Kunhayammed and Others vs. State of Kerala and Another, (2000) 6 SCC 359. The above aspect was dealt with elaborately in paras 38, 40 and 44. 

"38. The review can be filed even after SLP is dismissed is clear from the language of Order 47 Rule 1(a). Thus the words "no appeal" has been preferred in Order 47 Rule 1(a) would also mean a situation where special leave is not granted. Till then there is no appeal in the eye of law before the superior court. Therefore, the review can be preferred in the High Court before special leave is granted, but not after it is granted. The reason is obvious. Once special leave is granted the jurisdiction to consider the validity of the High Court's order vests in the Supreme Court and the High Court cannot entertain a review thereafter, unless such a review application was preferred in the High Court before special leave was granted. 

40. A petition seeking grant of special leave to appeal may be rejected for several reasons. For example, it may be rejected (i) as barred by time, or (ii) being a defective presentation, (iii) the petitioner having no locus standi to file the petition, (iv) the conduct of the petitioner disentitling him to any indulgence by the court, (iv) the question raised by the petitioner for consideration by this Court being not fit for consideration or deserving being dealt with by the Apex Court of the country and so on. The expression often employed by this Court while disposing of such petitions are -- "heard and dismissed", "dismissed", "dismissed as barred by time" and so on. May be that at the admission stage itself the opposite party appears on caveat or on notice and offers contest to the maintainability of the petition. The Court may apply its mind to the meritworthiness of the petitioner's prayer seeking leave to file an appeal and having formed an opinion may say "dismissed on merits". Such an order may be passed even ex parte, that is, in the absence of the opposite party. In any case, the dismissal would remain a dismissal by a non-speaking order where no reasons have been assigned and no law has been declared by the Supreme Court. The dismissal is not of the appeal but of the special leave petition. Even if the merits have been gone into, they are the merits of the special leave petition only. In our opinion neither doctrine of merger nor Article 141 of the Constitution is attracted to such an order. Grounds entitling exercise of review jurisdiction conferred by Order 47 Rule 1 CPC or any other statutory provision or allowing review of an order passed in exercise of writ or supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court (where also the principles underlying or emerging from Order 47 Rule 1 CPC act as guidelines) are not necessarily the same on which this Court exercises discretion to grant or not to grant special leave to appeal while disposing of a petition for the purpose. Mere rejection of a special leave petition does not take away the jurisdiction of the court, tribunal or forum whose order forms the subject-matter of petition for special leave to review its own order if grounds for exercise of review jurisdiction are shown to exist. Where the order rejecting an SLP is a speaking order, that is, where reasons have been assigned by this Court for rejecting the petition for special leave and are stated in the order still the order remains the one rejecting prayer for the grant of leave to appeal. The petitioner has been turned away at the threshold without having been allowed to enter in the appellate jurisdiction of this Court. Here also the doctrine of merger would not apply. But the law stated or declared by this Court in its order shall attract applicability of Article 141 of the Constitution. The reasons assigned by this Court in its order expressing its adjudication (expressly or by necessary implication) on point of fact or law shall take away the jurisdiction of any other court, tribunal or authority to express any opinion in conflict with or in departure from the view taken by this Court because permitting to do so would be subversive of judicial discipline and an affront to the order of this Court. However this would be so not by reference to the doctrine of merger. 

44. To sum up, our conclusions are: 

(i) Where an appeal or revision is provided against an order passed by a court, tribunal or any other authority before superior forum and such superior forum modifies, reverses or affirms the decision put in issue before it, the decision by the subordinate forum merges in the decision by the superior forum and it is the latter which subsists, remains operative and is capable of enforcement in the eye of law. 

(ii) The jurisdiction conferred by Article 136 of the Constitution is divisible into two stages. The first stage is upto the disposal of prayer for special leave to file an appeal. The second stage commences if and when the leave to appeal is granted and the special leave petition is converted into an appeal. 

(iii) The doctrine of merger is not a doctrine of universal or unlimited application. It will depend on the nature of jurisdiction exercised by the superior forum and the content or subject-matter of challenge laid or capable of being laid shall be determinative of the applicability of merger. The superior jurisdiction should be capable of reversing, modifying or affirming the order put in issue before it. Under Article 136 of the Constitution the Supreme Court may reverse, modify or affirm the judgment-decree or order appealed against while exercising its appellate jurisdiction and not while exercising the discretionary jurisdiction disposing of petition for special leave to appeal. The doctrine of merger can therefore be applied to the former and not to the latter. 

(iv) An order refusing special leave to appeal may be a non- speaking order or a speaking one. In either case it does not attract the doctrine of merger. An order refusing special leave to appeal does not stand substituted in place of the order under challenge. All that it means is that the Court was not inclined to exercise its discretion so as to allow the appeal being filed. 

(v) If the order refusing leave to appeal is a speaking order, i.e., gives reasons for refusing the grant of leave, then the order has two implications. Firstly, the statement of law contained in the order is a declaration of law by the Supreme Court within the meaning of Article 141 of the Constitution. Secondly, other than the declaration of law, whatever is stated in the order are the findings recorded by the Supreme Court which would bind the parties thereto and also the court, tribunal or authority in any proceedings subsequent thereto by way of judicial discipline, the Supreme Court being the Apex Court of the country. But, this does not amount to saying that the order of the court, tribunal or authority below has stood merged in the order of the Supreme Court rejecting the special leave petition or that the order of the Supreme Court is the only order binding as res judicata in subsequent proceedings between the parties. 

(vi) Once leave to appeal has been granted and appellate jurisdiction of Supreme Court has been invoked the order passed in appeal would attract the doctrine of merger; the order may be of reversal, modification or merely affirmation. 

(vii) On an appeal having been preferred or a petition seeking leave to appeal having been converted into an appeal before the Supreme Court the jurisdiction of High Court to entertain a review petition is lost thereafter as provided by sub- rule (1) of Rule 1 of Order 47 CPC." 

17. In view of the principle laid down above by this Court, even after dismissal of SLP, the aggrieved parties are entitled to move the court concerned by way of review. In the case on hand, though the appellants moved an SLP in this Court against the order of the High Court in Second Appeal, admittedly, the SLP was dismissed as withdrawn without the leave of the Court. 

18. Similar question was considered by this Court in Sarguja Transport Service vs. State Transport Appellate Tribunal, M.P., Gwalior, and Others, (1987) 1 SCC 5. In this decision it was held that where a petitioner withdraws a petition filed by him in the High Court under Article 226/227 without permission to institute a fresh petition, remedy under Article 226/227 should be deemed to have been abandoned by the petitioner in respect of the cause of action relied on in the writ petition and it would not be open to him to file a fresh petition in the High Court under the same article though other remedies like suit or writ petition before the this Court under Article 32 would remain open to him. It was further held that the principle underlying Rule 1 of Order XXIII of CPC should be extended in the interests of administration of justice to cases of withdrawal of writ petition also. The main contention urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner in that case was that the High Court was in error in rejecting the writ petition on the ground that the petitioner had withdrawn the earlier writ petition in which he had questioned the order passed by the Tribunal on 04.10.1985 without the permission of the High Court to file a fresh petition. It was urged by the learned counsel that since the High Court had not decided the earlier petition on merits but only had permitted the petitioner to withdraw the petition, the withdrawal of the said earlier petition could not have been treated as a bar to the subsequent writ petition. While considering the said question, this Court considered sub-rule 3 of Rule 1 of Order 23 CPC and its applicability to writ petitions filed under Article 226/227 and held as under: 

"9. The point for consideration is whether a petitioner after withdrawing a writ petition filed by him in the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India without the permission to institute a fresh petition can file a fresh writ petition in the High Court under that article. On this point the decision in Daryao case is of no assistance. But we are of the view that the principle underlying Rule 1 of Order XXIII of the Code should be extended in the interests of administration of justice to cases of withdrawal of writ petition also, not on the ground of res judicata but on the ground of public policy as explained above. It would also discourage the litigant from indulging in bench-hunting tactics. In any event there is no justifiable reason in such a case to permit a petitioner to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution once again. While the withdrawal of a writ petition filed in a High Court without permission to file a fresh writ petition may not bar other remedies like a suit or a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India since such withdrawal does not amount to res judicata, the remedy under Article 226 of the Constitution of India should be deemed to have been abandoned by the petitioner in respect of the cause of action relied on in the writ petition when he withdraws it without such permission. In the instant case the High Court was right in holding that a fresh writ petition was not maintainable before it in respect of the same subject-matter since the earlier writ petition had been withdrawn without permission to file a fresh petition. We, however, make it clear that whatever we have stated in this order may not be considered as being applicable to a writ petition involving the personal liberty of an individual in which the petitioner prays for the issue of a writ in the nature of habeas corpus or seeks to enforce the fundamental rignt guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution since such a case stands on a different footing altogether. We, however leave this question open." 

19. In the light of the discussion in the earlier paragraphs even after dismissal of an SLP with or without reasons, the aggrieved party is entitled to file a review. In view of the language used in Order XLVII Rule 1(a) of CPC which relates to "Review", the present Review Petition (C) No. D-5/2008) cannot be dismissed on the ground of maintainability.

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"Doctrine of Merger : Supreme Court Explains"

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