Published on: 05 September 2023 at 15:16 IST
Court: Supreme Court of India
Citation: P.N. Eswara Iyer v. Supreme Court of India (1980)
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that the Supreme Court of India’s powers to review is in Article 137 of the Constitution of India are applicable in all proceedings either civil or criminal. However, the “review of record” means any material which is already on record or may, with the permission of the court, be brought on record.
If justice summons the judges to allow a vital material in, it becomes part of the record; and if apparent error is there, correction becomes necessitous. It is held that Review Petition under the aegis of Order XL Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 provides for a wider set of grounds of review of orders in Civil Order than in Criminal Orders.
35. The purpose is plain, the language is elastic and interpretation of a necessary power must naturally be expansive. The substantive power is derived from Article 137 and is as wide for criminal as for civil proceedings. Even the difference in phraseology in the rule (Order 40, Rule 2) must, therefore, be read to encompass the same area and not to engraft an artificial divergence productive of anomaly. If the expression ‘record’ is read to mean, in its semantic sweep, any material even later brought on record, with the leave of the court, it will embrace subsequent events, new light and other grounds which we find in Order 47 Rule 1 CPC. We see no insuperable difficulty in equating the area in civil and criminal proceedings when review power is invoked from the same source.
36. True, the review power vis-à-vis criminal matters was raised only in the course of the debate at the Bar. But when the whole case is before us we must surely deal comprehensively with every aspect argued and not piecemeal with truncated parts. That will be avoidance of our obligation. We have, therefore, cleared the ground as the question is of moment, of frequent occurrence and was mooted in the course of the hearing. This pronouncement on review jurisdiction in criminal proceedings sets at rest a possible controversy and is as much binding on this Court itself (unless overruled) as on litigants. That is the discipline of the law of precedents and the import of Article 141.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra
