Supreme Court Review Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court’s review jurisdiction allows it to reconsider its own judgment or order to correct a recognised error or injustice. Article 137 confers this power, subject to any law made by Parliament and rules made under Article 145; it is a limited exception to the finality of the Court’s decisions.

Constitutional basis and coverage

Article 137 authorises the Supreme Court to review any judgment pronounced or order made by it. This covers both civil and criminal matters, but the permissible grounds differ under the Court’s procedural rules.

• The power concerns the Supreme Court’s own decisions; it is not a power to review judgments of other courts.
• Article 145 provides for rules regulating the Court’s practice and procedure, including the conditions governing review.

Grounds for review

Order XLVII of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 specifies the grounds on which review may be entertained.

• In civil proceedings, review is restricted to the grounds in Order XLVII, Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
• Discovery of new and important evidence may justify civil review if, despite due diligence, it was not within the applicant’s knowledge or could not be produced when the decision was made.
• Civil review may also rest on a mistake or error apparent on the face of the record, or any other sufficient reason.
• In criminal proceedings, review is confined to an error apparent on the face of the record.

Limits of the jurisdiction

Review is not an appeal in disguise. Its purpose is to correct a qualifying defect, not to provide another opportunity to argue the merits merely because a party disagrees with the outcome.

• An error apparent must be evident from the record rather than established through a lengthy process of reasoning.
• A possible alternative interpretation or repetition of arguments already considered does not, by itself, justify review.
• The narrow scope balances correction of serious mistakes with certainty and finality in litigation.

Procedure

Under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, a review petition ordinarily must be filed within 30 days of the judgment or order sought to be reviewed.

• As far as practicable, the petition is circulated to the same judges who delivered the judgment or order.
• Review petitions are ordinarily considered by circulation without oral arguments; review of judgments imposing a death sentence requires an open-court hearing.