LegalAware
LegalAware.ai
EMPOWERING LEGAL AWARENESS

Susanta Dey v. Babli Majumdar & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 411Decided 28 Mar 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 2103 of 2008
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The complainant had filed a cheque-bounce case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act against the appellant, and a Magistrate convicted the appellant, sentencing him to two months' imprisonment plus compensation of Rs. 3 lakhs. On the appellant's appeal, the Sessions/Appellate Court set aside the conviction and remanded the case to the Magistrate for fresh evidence. The complainant then challenged that remand order in the Calcutta High Court, which allowed her revision, set aside the Appellate Court's remand order, and itself restored the Magistrate's conviction and sentence. The appellant then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had exceeded its jurisdiction: the only question before it in revision was whether the Appellate Court's remand order was legal, but instead of answering that narrow question, the High Court went on to decide the complaint itself on merits and reimpose sentence, which it had no power to do at that stage. The Court found the High Court's order legally impermissible and set it aside, along with the Appellate Court's earlier remand order. The matter was sent back to the Appellate Court to decide the appeal afresh on its merits (without remanding further to the Magistrate), using the material already on record, within six months.

Lesson Learnt

An appellate or revisional court must confine itself to the specific question actually raised before it: a court hearing a revision against a remand order cannot leapfrog that question and decide the underlying case on merits itself.

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

More rulings in Civil Procedure

Civil ProcedureDelhi High Court

Smt Nisha Sharma vs. M/S Intec Capital Limited and Ors

The Court held that because the property had already been specifically identified in the pending execution case before the transfer happened, the transfer remained subject to the execution proceedings under Section 52 of the Transfer of Property Act, and didn't place the share beyond the lender's reach. It also found the appellant couldn't reopen the same ownership argument a second time, since an identical objection had already been rejected earlier and not appealed, and that the surrounding facts (payment timing, continued family occupation, auction bought by a relative) suggested the transfer was intended to defeat the lender's claim. The appeal was dismissed and the auction sale of the guarantor's half-share was upheld.

Decided 6 Oct 2026Read case
Civil ProcedureDelhi High Court

Shakeel Qureshi & Ors. vs. Rashid Qureshi & Ors.

The Court held that since the plaintiffs' own claims were entirely built on the MoU, the MoU's exclusionary jurisdiction clause (Clause 10, conferring jurisdiction only on Bareilly courts) had to be examined and applied. It rejected the plaintiffs' "approbate and reprobate" argument (that defendants couldn't rely on the MoU in other suits yet deny Delhi's jurisdiction here), finding the defendants' conduct in earlier, differently-framed suits didn't amount to such inconsistency. The plaint was returned under Order VII Rule 10 CPC to be filed before a court of competent jurisdiction at Bareilly, without any opinion expressed on the merits of the fraud/breach allegations.

Decided 6 Oct 2026Read case
Civil ProcedureDelhi High Court

M/S Siddhivinayak Coal Carriers Pvt. Ltd. vs. Coal India Limited & Ors.

The Division Bench held that an appeal under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 only lies against orders specifically listed in Order XLIII of the CPC or Section 37 of the Arbitration Act, relying on Supreme Court authority (Kandla Export Corporation) confirming this is an exhaustive, not illustrative, list. Since an order converting a summary suit into a regular suit isn't among the orders listed in Order XLIII, the appeal was dismissed as not maintainable.

Decided 6 Oct 2026Read case
Civil ProcedureDelhi High Court

Ramesh vs. Smt. Geeta

The High Court agreed with the lower courts that the document recorded only a loan transaction, not a sale, so the appellant's argument about an illegal/void sale (under Section 23 of the Contract Act) didn't apply. Since the respondent was relying on her own allotment rights rather than enforcing the disputed document, and the appeal really just disputed how the evidence had been weighed, no substantial legal question arose, and the second appeal was dismissed.

Decided 6 Oct 2026Read case
Civil ProcedureDelhi High Court

Pooja Singh vs. Gulab Devi Prasad Singh

While the appeal was pending, the parties settled the matter in execution proceedings for Rs. 9,50,000, and part of that settlement had already been acted upon. Rs. 1,98,000 had been paid to the Plaintiff, and the balance of Rs. 7,52,000 had been deposited in the High Court. The Court held that the Defendant could not go back on a settlement that had been acted upon, and that no monetary dispute remained for adjudication. The Court directed that the deposited balance be released to the Plaintiff and disposed of the appeal in terms of the settlement.

Decided 5 Oct 2026Read case
Civil ProcedureDelhi High Court

Richmond Global School vs. Shri Vijay Kumar Jain

The Court considered the legal meaning of "sufficient cause", explaining that it requires the party to show that it was not negligent or lacking in bona fides, and that the facts must support the exercise of discretion judiciously. Finding that the District Judge's view was correct, the High Court held that the appeal was devoid of merit and dismissed it, with no order as to costs.

Decided 5 Oct 2026Read case