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Dharmesh S. Jain & Anr. vs. Urban Infrastructure Real Estate Fund

Not available · 2022 INSC 100Decided 25 Jan 2022
Not available
M.R. Shah · Sanjiv Khanna

Background

The applicants had earlier been directed by the High Court to deposit an amount to keep an arbitral award's execution stayed, and after seeking and being granted repeated extensions by the Supreme Court, still failed to deposit the money. When the respondent applied for recall of an ex-parte extension order, the Supreme Court on 28.10.2021 directed the applicants to deposit the amount and warned that non-compliance would be treated seriously. The applicants then filed the present application asking the Court to recall that 28.10.2021 order, arguing it was passed without proper notice or hearing and exceeded what could be ordered in a special leave petition.

Decision Breakdown

The Court rejected the recall application, noting that the applicants' own counsel had appeared and been heard before the 28.10.2021 order was passed, and had not objected at the time to maintainability or asked for time to file a reply, so they could not raise those objections now. The Court found the application to be an afterthought aimed at escaping contempt proceedings initiated by the respondent, pointing to the applicants' repeated pattern of seeking extensions while never actually complying with the High Court's original deposit direction. Since the order was passed only after due hearing and given the applicants' demonstrated intent to delay rather than comply, the Court held no case for recall was made out and dismissed the application.

Lesson Learnt

A party cannot seek to recall a court order on procedural grounds (lack of notice, non-maintainability) if it fully participated in that hearing without raising the objection at the time; courts will scrutinize repeated extension requests for genuine intent to comply versus tactics to delay enforcement.

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

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