Larger Bench Decision to Prevail irrespective of judges' majority view: SC [Read Order]

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said that the majority decision of a bench of larger strength would prevail over the decision of a bench of lesser strength, irrespective of the number of judges taking the majority view.

The top court's judgement would mean that in a seven-bench decision of 4:3, the majority view would prevail over the unanimous view of a five-judge Constitution bench.

"In view of Article 145(5) of the Constitution of India concurrence of a majority of the judges at the hearing will be considered as a judgment or opinion of the court. It is settled that the majority decision of a bench of larger strength would prevail over the decision of a bench of lesser strength, irrespective of the number of judges constituting the majority," a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee said.

Justice Banerjee wrote the judgement on behalf of herself and  also for Justices Surya Kant, M M Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

A two-judge bench of Justices R F Nariman (since retired) and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul in 2017 referred the matter to the Constitution bench.

The court had then framed a legal question if a unanimous five-judge bench decision can be overruled by a seven-judge bench, in which with four judges speaking for the majority, and three judges are in minority.

On Monday, in his separate and concurring judgement, Justice Hemant Gupta also said that a decision delivered by a bench of largest strength is binding on any subsequent bench of lesser or coequal strength.

"It is the strength of the bench and not number of judges who have taken a particular view which is said to be relevant. A bench of lesser quorum cannot disagree or dissent from the view of law taken by a bench of larger quorum. Quorum means the bench strength which was hearing the matter," he said.

Justice Gupta said it has been rightly concluded that the numerical strength of the judges taking a particular view is not relevant, but the bench strength is determinative of the binding nature of the judgment.

[Read Order]