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State of U.P. v. Ayodhya Prasad Pal & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 1231 of 2017)Decided 30 Jan 2017
Civil Appeal No. 1231 of 2017
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar

Background

The State of U.P. was impleaded in a High Court writ petition only as a procedural formality, but the High Court's final order ended up issuing certain directions against the State without giving it a real opportunity to file a counter affidavit or argue its case. The State appealed to the Supreme Court on this narrow ground of being denied a hearing.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court granted leave and held that, since it intended to send the matter back to the High Court, it would not go into the merits itself. It set aside the impugned High Court order, impleaded the State as an additional respondent, and gave it one month to file a counter affidavit (with two weeks thereafter for the writ petitioner to file a rejoinder). The High Court was requested to then decide the matter afresh on merits. The appeal was allowed only to this extent, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

A party cannot be bound by directions issued in a case where it was never given a genuine chance to put forward its defence: courts will set aside such orders and send the matter back for a fair hearing, even without examining who is ultimately right on the merits.

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

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