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Ved Pal (D) Through LRs & Ors. v. Prem Devi (D) Through LRs & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 692Decided 10 Aug 2018
Civil Appeal No. 8353 of 2014
Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre · Justice S. Abdul Nazeer

Background

The High Court of Punjab & Haryana had disposed of a second appeal on the basis of a compromise said to have been reached between the parties, rather than deciding it on merits. The appellants, who were respondents in that second appeal, filed a review petition challenging how the compromise disposal came about, but the High Court dismissed the review petition without properly examining their grievance. They then approached the Supreme Court by special leave against both the original disposal and the dismissal of their review petition.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had not properly examined the appellants' plea about the circumstances of the alleged compromise, and that the High Court itself, being the court that passed the compromise order, was the right forum to re-examine the issue. The Court allowed the appeal in part, set aside the order dismissing the review petition, and permitted the appellants to amend their review petition to raise all their grievances about how the second appeal came to be disposed of. The matter was sent back to the High Court to decide the review petition afresh on merits, without the Supreme Court expressing any view on the underlying merits itself.

Lesson Learnt

If a court disposes of a case "by compromise" without properly verifying that the compromise was genuinely agreed to, the aggrieved party should challenge this through a review petition before the same court, and that court is obligated to examine such a challenge properly on its merits rather than simply turning the party away to other remedies.

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

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