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Ranjit Kumar Karmakar @ Dulal Karmakar v. Hari Sankar Das

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 542Decided 16 Apr 2019
Civil Appeal No. 3967 of 2019
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The appellant (plaintiff) sued for declaration of title, confirmation of possession, and injunction over certain land. The Trial Court dismissed the suit, but the first Appellate Court reversed this and decreed in the plaintiff's favour; the defendant then filed a second appeal before the Tripura High Court, which allowed the appeal and restored the Trial Court's dismissal, prompting the plaintiff's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that under Section 100(5) of the Code of Civil Procedure, a second appeal can only be heard and decided on the specific "substantial questions of law" that the High Court itself frames when admitting the appeal. Here, although the High Court had framed six substantial questions of law while admitting the second appeal, it never actually answered any of them; instead, it discussed unrelated issues and allowed the appeal as though it were rehearing the entire first appeal on facts. Because this exceeded the High Court's jurisdiction in second appeal, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court's order and remanded the matter back to the High Court to decide the second appeal afresh strictly on the six framed questions, without expressing any opinion on the merits.

Lesson Learnt

A second appeal before a High Court is confined to deciding the specific substantial questions of law that were formally framed when the appeal was admitted: a High Court cannot use a second appeal to reopen and re-decide the facts of a case as if it were a first appeal.

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

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