Sivakami And Ors. vs State Of T. Nadu And Ors.

3) These appeals involve a short point. Few facts need mention infra to appreciate the point involved in the appeals.

4) The appellants herein are the writ petitioners before the High Court in the writ proceedings out of which these appeals arise.

10) The State felt aggrieved and filed intra court appeal before the Division Bench out of which these appeals arise. By impugned order, the Division Bench allowed the State's appeal and while setting aside the order of the Single Judge dismissed the appellants’ writ petition. In other words, the acquisition proceedings were upheld by the Division Bench as being legal and proper. Against the said order, review application was filed by the appellants herein but it was dismissed. It is against these two orders of the Division Bench, the writ petitioners felt aggrieved and filed these appeals by way of special leave in this Court.

15) Second, in the light of afore-mentioned findings, the Division Bench should have either dealt with all the issues raised by the parties and given its own reasoning on all such issues while deciding the appeal or remanded the case to the writ Court (Single Judge) for deciding the appellants’ writ petition afresh on merits and to pass a reasoned order dealing with all the grounds raised by the parties in support of their respective contentions.

16) The Division Bench, however, simply allowed the State's appeal and, in consequence, dismissed the writ petition and upheld the acquisition proceedings as being legal and proper and that too without assigning any reason in support thereof.

18) In our considered opinion, this appears to be a case where the Single Judge (writ Court) allowed the appellants’ writ petition without assigning any reason and without dealing with any of the grounds raised by the parties except placing reliance on one decision for allowing the writ petition whereas the Division Bench allowed the State's appeal without dealing with any of the issues raised by the parties in the writ petition and without assigning any 7 reason as to why the writ petition deserved to be dismissed.

19) In our view, what the Division Bench was required to do while deciding the appeal, it was done by the Division Bench while deciding the review application. We find that the order in review application runs into 10 pages whereas the order in appeal runs into 6 pages. We cannot countenance such approach of the Division Bench while deciding the appeal and the review application.

20) The scope of the appellate powers and the review powers are well defined. The power of review under Order 47 Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 is very limited and it may be exercised only if there is a mistake or an error apparent on the face of the record. The power of review is not to be confused with the appellate power. The review petition/application cannot be decided like a regular intra court appeal. On the other hand, the scope of appeal is much wider 8 wherein all the issues raised by the parties are open for examination by the Appellate Court

22) In the light of foregoing discussion, we are of the view that the orders passed by the High Court, i.e., (writ Court and Division Bench) are bad in law and cannot be legally sustained for want of any reason, discussion and finding on any of the grounds/issues raised by the parties in support of their respective contentions.

23) Since the matter is pending for the last three decades, we consider it just and proper to remand the case (writ petition) to the Division Bench for its decision afresh on merits in accordance with law instead of remanding it to the Writ Court. 9

24) In view of the foregoing discussion, the appeals succeed and are accordingly allowed. The impugned orders are set aside and the writ petition is remanded to the Division Bench for its decision afresh on merits in accordance with law.

25) We, however, make it clear that having formed an opinion to remand the case to the Division Bench, we did not apply our mind to the merits of the controversy. We, therefore, request the High Court (Division Bench) to decide the writ petition in accordance with law preferably within six months uninfluenced by any of our observations.

March 12, 2018 10