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Ashiq Hussain Faktoo v. Union of India and Ors.

Writ Petition (Criminal) · Neutral citation not assigned (Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 46 of 2008)Decided 30 Aug 2016
Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 46 of 2008
Justice Ranjan Gogoi · Justice Prafulla C. Pant · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar

Background

The petitioner had already been convicted by the Supreme Court itself in Criminal Appeal No. 889 of 2001 (judgment dated 30.1.2003) under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 and under Section 302 read with Section 120B IPC, and sentenced to life imprisonment. His subsequent review petition and a co-accused's curative petition against that conviction had both already been dismissed in 2003 and 2005 respectively. He then filed a fresh writ petition under Article 32, seeking in substance to challenge his conviction and sentence yet again, this time framed as a habeas corpus-type prayer for release.

Decision Breakdown

The Court examined the limited scope for reopening a final, concluded judgment of the Supreme Court, relying on the curative-jurisdiction framework laid down in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra. That framework permits relief only in narrow circumstances, such as a breach of natural justice where a party was not heard, or undisclosed judicial bias, and does not extend to re-arguing that a judgment was simply wrong on the merits. Finding that the petitioner had not invoked or exhausted the curative petition remedy specific to this conviction, and that his writ petition did not fit any recognised exception, the Court held the Article 32 writ petition was not maintainable and dismissed it.

Lesson Learnt

Once the Supreme Court's own judgment of conviction has become final and even a review has failed, a litigant cannot simply file a fresh writ petition to re-argue the same conviction: the only further remedy is a curative petition, and even that is confined to very narrow grounds like bias or a denial of a fair hearing, not disagreement with the outcome.

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

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