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Harwansh Kaur & Anr. v. Special Area Development Authority (Counter Magnet), Gwalior & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 662Decided 22 Oct 2021
Civil Appeal No. 6424 of 2021
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit · Justice S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

The appellants, legal heirs of one Dilip Singh, had earlier won a civil suit establishing their title and possession over certain land in Gwalior. The respondent-Authority later filed its own suit claiming the land had been leased to it by the State, but that suit was dismissed by the trial court and the dismissal was upheld by the High Court in a first appeal. The Authority then filed a review petition relying on fresh documents about its land allocation, and the High Court allowed the review, recalling its earlier judgment and restoring the appeal for a fresh hearing on merits.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the documents produced in the review petition were allocation/grant papers in the Authority's favour that had no bearing on the real controversy, whether the State of Madhya Pradesh ever had title to transfer the land in the first place, which had already been conclusively decided against the Authority in two rounds of litigation. The Court found that the High Court's exercise in allowing the review amounted to reopening the merits of the case, which is impermissible in review jurisdiction. It accordingly allowed the appeal and set aside the High Court's order permitting the review.

Lesson Learnt

A review petition is meant only to correct errors apparent on the face of the record, not to reopen or relitigate settled factual findings through documents that do not actually address the real issue in dispute.

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

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