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Askari Hussain v. Dinesh Kumar

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 929Decided 24 Aug 2026
C.A. No.-011988-011988 - 2026 (arising out of SLP (C) No. 19685 of 2025)
Justice Dipankar Datta · Justice Sheel Nagu

Background

A medical negligence complaint (originally awarding the complainants Rs. 95 lakh compensation) reached the NCDRC on appeal, where the two hearing members disagreed: one would have dismissed the complaint entirely, the other would have reduced the compensation. The matter was referred to a third member, who was given five detailed factual questions to answer but ended up deciding the whole appeal on its merits, agreeing with the member who favoured reducing (not dismissing) compensation. The losing party challenged this before the Allahabad High Court, arguing the third member exceeded his jurisdiction by deciding the case instead of only answering the referred questions and sending it back; the High Court agreed and ordered the matter reconsidered. The original complainants (Askari Hussain and others) then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court explained that ordinarily, under the Consumer Protection Act, a member resolving a split verdict should confine himself strictly to the specific point(s) of disagreement and send the case back to the original bench. However, in this case the referring bench never actually identified the precise points on which its members differed. It instead framed five broad, fact-heavy questions that effectively required examining the entire case. Given this, the third member's decision to resolve the case using a practical, "common sense" approach was not so improper as to justify interference. But because the High Court had only addressed this procedural point and never examined the case's substance, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court's order and sent the matter back for the High Court to decide the underlying dispute on its actual merits.

Lesson Learnt

Procedural rules for tie-breaking within multi-member tribunals should not be applied too rigidly when the referring order itself was vague about what exactly was in dispute. Courts will favour a practical resolution over a technical restart, especially where remand would only cause further delay.

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

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