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Biltu Bhattacharya vs. State of West Bengal

Diary No. · 2022 INSC 550Decided 10 May 2022
Diary No. 29606 of 2021
Uday Umesh Lalit · S. Ravindra Bhat · Bela M. Trivedi · U.U. Lalit together with Justices S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

Biltu Bhattacharya had earlier been convicted by the trial court and the High Court for murder (Section 302 read with 120-B IPC) and an offence under the Arms Act, 1959, and the Supreme Court had affirmed that conviction and sentence in Criminal Appeal No. 1182 of 2019. He then filed a review petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its own earlier decision affirming his conviction.

Decision Breakdown

The Court first condoned the delay in filing the review petition. On the merits, it noted that the conviction and sentence had already been affirmed after considering the entire material on record. Having gone through the grounds raised in the review petition, the Bench found no "error apparent on the face of the record", the narrow standard required to succeed in a review, and accordingly dismissed the review petition.

Lesson Learnt

A review petition is not a second appeal or an opportunity to re-argue a case on its merits; the Supreme Court will reopen its own final decision only if there is an obvious, glaring error on the record, and reviews are dismissed where the original decision already properly considered all the material.

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

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