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Kalpana Mehta and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2017 INSC 314Decided 5 Apr 2017
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 558 of 2012
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

This is a referral order, not a final judgment. Two writ petitions arose from public interest litigation over HPV vaccine trials conducted in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The question was whether a Parliamentary Standing Committee's report on those trials could be relied upon or placed before the Court in such proceedings.

Decision Breakdown

This is a referral order, not a final judgment. The Court said it was only prima facie of the view that such a report may not be tendered to prove disputed facts. It framed two questions and referred the issue to a Constitution Bench under Article 145(3) of the Constitution. It directed that the papers be placed before the Chief Justice of India to constitute an appropriate larger Bench, and the writ petitions were not decided.

Lesson Learnt

There is no final ruling yet on whether courts can rely on Parliamentary Committee reports as evidence. The question was left to a Constitution Bench.

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

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