{"id":211008,"date":"2022-10-18T20:38:07","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T15:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=211008"},"modified":"2022-10-18T20:38:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T15:08:07","slug":"judicial-comity-over-arithmetic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/judicial-comity-over-arithmetic\/","title":{"rendered":"Judicial comity over arithmetic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article\u00a0\u201cJudicial comity over arithmetic\u201d <\/strong>published in\u00a0The Hindu<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a018th<\/sup> October 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Governance <\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance:\u00a0<\/strong>Supreme Court judgement<\/strong><\/p>\n

News: <\/strong>\u00a0A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has held that a judgment delivered by a larger Bench will prevail over the decision of a smaller Bench if the decision is given by the majority of the judges of the larger bench.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This means that out of 7 judges of the larger bench even if 4 judges give the ruling then it would overrule the judgment of the smaller bench. Even if all the judges of the smaller bench have given the judgment unanimously.<\/p>\n

What is the present rule?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It is a well-established fact in law that the decision of a superior court will always be binding on a lower court and that the decision of a larger Bench will always prevail over a smaller Bench of the same court.<\/p>\n

This has been done to ensure stability and consistency in the decisions of the court.<\/p>\n

A vast majority of cases before the Supreme Court is heard and decided by a Bench of two judges (Division Bench) or three (full Bench).<\/p>\n

The bench with equal number of judges cannot overrule or reconsider a decision of a coordinate Bench.<\/p>\n

Further, the doubt and conflict between decisions of co-equal Benches is referred to the Chief Justice of India and this leads to the formation of larger benches.<\/p>\n

What are the problems associated with the larger bench?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The decision of the majority of the judges is treated as the decision of entire judges of the bench.<\/p>\n

This raises the issue whether number of judges supporting the judgment should be given priority over the larger bench.<\/p>\n

SC cleared this doubt that if number judges is given importance and not the strength of the bench then every decision of a larger bench could be doubted and overruled.<\/p>\n

This could make the decisions of the larger bench to fall and be instable. Therefore, the current decision of the SC highlights the Rule of Precedents<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is the Doctrine of Precedents and what are the problems associated with it?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Doctrine of Precedents states that \u201ca decision that has already been taken by a higher court is binding to the lower court and at it also stands as an example to the lower court judgment which cannot be altered by a lower court.\u201d<\/p>\n

If this doctrine is followed blindly then it could have serious consequences as the correctness of a decision will be dependent on the decision of the higher court\u2019s bench rather than based on reasons.<\/p>\n

However, SC has also said that a decision merely considered by a greater number of judges does not mean that it is correct, especially in the case of decision that has been arrived by a slim majority (4:3).<\/p>\n

Therefore, the Doctrine of Precedents holds importance in India but this does not mean that the larger bench\/higher court is always correct and there is a way to review its judgment.<\/p>\n

How the Doctrine of Precedents is followed in other countries?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The issue of the precedent is generally avoided in countries like the US and South Africa.<\/p>\n

Whereas, the U.K. and Australia follow a system similar to that of India but the entire act of \u2018reconsidering a precedent\u2019 is viewed as a delicate and grave judicial responsibility in these countries.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A certain change is required in the composition of larger bench to avoid conflicts arising out of the number judges supporting a ruling.<\/p>\n

For example, if a five-judge unanimous decision is referred to a larger Bench, it should be considered by a nine-judge Bench rather than seven, so that it would in any case be decided by a majority of at least five judges.<\/p>\n

This will ensure a quorum with a greater majority coming up to the decision than the lower Bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article\u00a0\u201cJudicial comity over arithmetic\u201d published in\u00a0The Hindu\u00a0on\u00a018th October 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Governance Relevance:\u00a0Supreme Court judgement News: \u00a0A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has held that a judgment delivered by a larger Bench will prevail over the decision of a smaller Bench if the decision is… Continue reading Judicial comity over arithmetic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-211008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704956722},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}