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Rakesh @ Bhura Rajak vs The State of Madhya Pradesh

Diary No. · 2022 INSC 894Decided 30 Aug 2022
Diary No. 9265 of 2022
Uday Umesh Lalit · Ajay Rastogi

Background

The petitioner had been convicted by the Sessions Court, and the conviction upheld by the High Court, for an offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the IPC (murder committed with common intention). His Special Leave Petition against the concurrent findings of guilt was earlier dismissed by the Supreme Court. He then filed this review petition, along with an application to condone delay in filing it, seeking reconsideration of that dismissal.

Decision Breakdown

The Court first allowed the application condoning the delay in filing the review petition. On the merits, however, it held that the grounds raised did not disclose any "error apparent on the face of the record": the narrow standard required to succeed in a review petition, as opposed to a fresh appeal on the merits. Finding no such error, the Court dismissed the review petition, leaving the earlier dismissal of the SLP (and hence the conviction) undisturbed.

Lesson Learnt

A review petition is not a second chance to re-argue a case on facts or law that the Court has already considered. It succeeds only where there is a glaring, self-evident error in the original order, a very high bar that ordinary disagreement with the outcome does not meet.

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

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