MANOHARLAL VERMA Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application for review of a final order passed by a Division Bench, of this Court in Miscellaneous Petition No. 180 of 1965 dated January 10, 1968, to which one of us (Pandey, J.) was a party. The other Judge, Dixit C. J. , has now retired. The precise question for consideration in this situation is whether, if an application for review lies, it should be heard by Pandey, J. sitting singly or by a division Bench of this Court or by a still larger Bench.

(2.) THE general law is that, in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings, there is, apart from, the statute, no inherent power of review and, therefore, when the statute does not provide for review, the power of review cannot be assumed to exist: raja-ram V. Rani Jamit Kunwar Devi, 1961 MPLJ 944; Deorao Krishnarao Jadhao v. Board of Revenue, Misc. Petn. No. 10 of 1962, D/-5-12-62 (reported in 1963 Jab LJ 88) and Thakur Himmatsingh v. Board of Revenue, 1966 MPLJ 170 = (AIR 1966 Madh Pra 43 (FB) ). There was a difference of opinion on the question whether an order passed by the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution could be reviewed in the absence of any provision authorising it so to do. However, in Shivdeo Singh v. State of Punjab, AIR 1963 SC 1909 the Supreme court observed that the power of review to prevent miscarriage of justice or to correct grave and palpable errors inhered in every Court of plenary jurisdiction and that there was nothing in Article 226 of the Constitution to preclude the High Court from exercising it. Thus the point is no longer open to doubt or debate.

(3.) THE Rules framed by this Court for regulating its proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution do not provide for review of any order passed in those proceedings. However, Rules 3 and 4 of Chapter I of the Rules of this Court provide as follows: "3. In cases not provided for by Order XLVII, Rule 5 of the Code of Civil procedure, an application for a review of a decree or order shall be heard:-- (a) if the decree or order, review of which is applied for, is passed by a Judge alone, by a Bench of two Judges; (b) if the said decree or order was passed by a Bench of two or more Judges, by a Bench consisting of as many Judges as the bench of whose decree or order review is applied for.