The Supreme Court has scorned down on the practice of remanding the matter back to Trial Court by the Appellate Court in a casual manner.
The Division Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari stressed that where both the sides have led oral and documentary evidence, the Appellate Court has to decide the appeal on merits instead of remanding the case to the lower court/ tribunal.
In the present appeal, a Notice issued by a land tribunal was quashed by Single bench of the Karnataka High Court while allowing a writ petition filed by land owners. When appealed, the matter was remanded back to the Land Tribunal by the Division Bench.
Aggrieved, the appellants approached Apex Court.
Answering as to whether the Division Bench was justified in reversing the order of the Learned Single Judge and remanding the matter to the Land Tribunal, the Court reiterated that order of remand cannot be passed as a matter of course.
"The Division Bench, without assigning any cogent reasons, has set aside the order of the learned Single Judge and has remanded the matter to the Land Tribunal. It is settled law that the order of remand cannot be passed as a matter of course. An order of remand cannot also be passed for the mere purpose of remanding a proceeding to the lower court or the Tribunal. An endeavour has to be made by the Appellate Court to dispose of the case on merits. Where both the sides have led oral and documentary evidence, the Appellate Court has to decide the appeal on merits instead of remanding the case to the lower court or the Tribunal."
Noting that the impugned order of the Division Bench lacks justification, the Court set it aside.
Read Judgement Here:
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