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Neelam Manmohan Attavar v. Manmohan Attavar (D) through LRs.

Miscellaneous Application · 2021 INSC 64Decided 5 Feb 2021
Miscellaneous Application No. 42 of 2021
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The applicant, acting in person, had earlier asked the Supreme Court to recall its order dated 03.09.2020 passed in a transferred criminal case between her and her late husband's legal representatives. That first recall request was rejected by the Registrar, and a further challenge to the Registrar's action was also dismissed. She then filed this second, fresh application seeking the same relief: recall of the same 03.09.2020 order.

Decision Breakdown

During the hearing, the applicant asked Justice Chandrachud to recuse himself simply because an earlier order had gone against her. The Court held that a litigant cannot "browbeat" the Court into giving her a bench of her choice, and that an adverse outcome alone is never valid grounds for recusal, so it rejected that request. On the merits, the Court found the fresh application not maintainable because an identical request for the same relief had already been considered and rejected once before, and the original 03.09.2020 order had itself been passed after hearing the applicant. The application was dismissed, and the Court directed the Registry not to accept any further miscellaneous applications on the same subject matter.

Lesson Learnt

A party cannot repeatedly re-litigate the same request before the same forum after it has already been rejected, and asking a judge to step aside merely because a past ruling was unfavourable is not a legitimate ground for recusal.

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

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