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P. Chandrika vs The Commissioner, Commissioner of Urban Land Ceiling and Urban Land Tax and Anr.

Diary No. · 2022 INSC 313Decided 15 Mar 2022
Diary No. 4058 of 2022
Uday Umesh Lalit · S. Ravindra Bhat · Hrishikesh Roy · U.U. Lalit along with Justices S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

In proceedings under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1978, the government had taken possession of P. Chandrika's excess urban land before the Act was repealed. Her writ petition challenging this was rejected by a Division Bench of the High Court, and her subsequent Special Leave Petition to the Supreme Court was also dismissed. She then filed a review petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its dismissal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court condoned the delay in filing the review petition but rejected her request for an open-court hearing, and after examining the review petition and its grounds, found no error apparent on the face of the record that would justify reopening the earlier decision. Since possession of the excess land had already been taken over by the government before the Repeal Act came into force, the original claim was rightly found to be without substance. The review petition was accordingly dismissed, leaving the earlier dismissal of her case undisturbed.

Lesson Learnt

A review petition is not a second chance to re-argue a case on its merits. It succeeds only when there is a clear, self-evident error in the original order, and once land has already been taken over by the government before a repealing law comes into force, a later challenge based on that repeal is unlikely to succeed.

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

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