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Arjun Prakash vs Shyam Sahani & Ors.

Review Petition (Civil) · 2022 INSC 891Decided 30 Aug 2022
Review Petition (Civil) No. 1837 of 2020

Background

Having already lost a civil appeal and a subsequent review petition in the Supreme Court, the petitioner Arjun Prakash filed a curative petition, the final and most restricted remedy available in Indian law to challenge a Supreme Court order. As with such petitions, an oral hearing was not held; the Court examined the papers on record.

Decision Breakdown

Applying the well-settled standard from Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra & Another, (2002) 4 SCC 388, under which a curative petition can succeed only where there has been a violation of natural justice or a demonstrable case of bias in the earlier proceedings, the four-judge bench found that no such case was made out. The curative petition was accordingly dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

Curative petitions exist to correct a genuine, narrow category of injustice (bias or a breach of natural justice), not to give a litigant another opportunity to re-argue the merits of a case that has already been decided and reviewed.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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