PM Cold Storage Private Limited vs Monotrone Leasing Private Limited
Background
PM Cold Storage Private Limited, having already lost its civil appeal and a subsequent review petition before the Supreme Court, filed a curative petition: the final and most limited avenue for challenging a Supreme Court order in Indian law. Unlike the other curative petitions in this set, this order does not record that an oral hearing was specifically requested and refused, but the Court decided it on the papers in the same manner.
Decision Breakdown
The five-judge bench examined the curative petition and the relevant record in light of the governing test in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra & Another, (2002) 4 SCC 388, which restricts curative relief to cases of proven bias or a violation of natural justice. Finding no such case made out, the Court dismissed the curative petition.
Lesson Learnt
Even where a larger bench of five judges hears a curative petition, the threshold for success remains the same narrow test of natural justice or bias: a curative petition is not a broader or easier route to relitigate a case's merits.