Civil procedure Code, 1908 – S.114 r/w Or XLVII – Review
Application – Maintainability of – Held: s.114 r/w Or XLVII makes
it clear that a review application would be maintainable on (i)
discovery of new and important matters or evidence which, after
exercise of due diligence, were not within the knowledge of the
applicant or could not be produced by him when the decree was
passed or the order made; (ii) on account of some mistake or error
apparent on the face of the record; or (iii) for any other sufficient
reason – The error must be apparent on the face of the record and
not one which has to be searched out – The power of review is not
to be confused with the appellate power which enables the Superior
Court to correct errors committed by a subordinate Court – Under
the review, the Court can correct a mistake but not substitute the
view taken earlier merely because there is a possibility of taking
two views in a matter – There is a clear distinction between an
erroneous decision as against an error apparent on the face of the
record – An erroneous decision can be corrected by the Superior
Court, however an error apparent on the face of the record can
only be corrected by exercising review jurisdiction – In the present
case, nothing have prevented the respondents from filing the certified
copies of the revenue records even earlier, but they elected to file
only photocopies of the very same surrender proceedings – At no
stage a plea was taken by the respondents with regard to the
discovery of new documents which could have been produced by
them after due diligence – Several opportunities were available to
the respondents to file authenticated copies of the revenue records,
firstly, when respondents challenged ex-parte order of Appellate
authority, secondly, when Appellate authority reconsidered the
appeals, thirdly, when respondent preferred a second set of revision
petition, fourthly, when respondent filed two review petitions, and lastly, when respondent preferred Special Leave Petition before
Supreme Court – Moreover, no averments were made by the
respondents in the second set of review to the effect that they could
not trace the documents in question earlier – Therefore, non-production of the relevant documents on the part of the respondents
at the appropriate stage cannot be a ground for seeking review of
the judgment when five opportunities were available to them for
production of the said documents – Even otherwise, recourse to
successive review petitions against the same order is impermissible
when the respondents have miserably failed to draw the attention
of the Court to any circumstances that would entitle them to invoke
review jurisdiction – Thus, Second set of review petition ought to
be rejected by High Court.