MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIAversusCHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE VELLORE & ORS.

                            [2016] 2 S.C.R. 872



A                    MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA
                                     v.
         CHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE VELLORE & ORS.
             (Review Petition (C) Nos. 2159-2268 of 2013 etc.)
B                              APRIL 11, 2016
      [ANIL R. DAVE, A.K. SIKRI, R.K. AGRAWAL, ADARSII
            KUMAR GOEL AND R. BANUMATIII, JJ.I

        Review: Review petition before Supreme Court for reca/li11g
C decision passed in Christian Medical College Case -Held: Judgment
  delivered in Christian Medical College needs reco11sideralion -
  Reasons not stated in detail at this stage so that it does not
  prejudicially affect the hearing of the matters - For !he purpose.
  observations made in Sheonandan is relevant that if the reviell' berv:h
D of the apex court were required to give reasons. the review bench
  would have to discuss the case fully and elaborately and expose
  what according to it constitutes an error in the reasoning of the
  original bench and would inevitably result in pre judgment of the
  case and prejudice ils re hearing- Jn Christian Medical College case
E some binding precedents were not considered and more particularly
  there was no discussion among the 111e111bers of the bench before
  the pronouncement of the judgment - Therefore, review petition
  allowed and Christian Medical College Case recalled with direction
  to hear the matter afresh.
F         Christian Medical College Ve/lore & Ors. vs. Union of
          India & Ors. 2013 (7) SCR 908 : (2014) 2 SCC 305:
          Kamlesh Verma vs. Mayawati and Others 2013 (11) SCR
          25 : (2013) 8 SCC 320; Union of India vs. Na111it
          Sharma 2013 (13) SCR 96 : (2013) 10 SCC 359;
G         Sheonandan Paswan vs. State of Bihar and others 1987
          (1) SCR 702 : (1987) 1 SCC 288 - referred to.
                           Case Law Reference
           2013 (7) SCR 908         referred to     Para 1
           20.13 (11) SCR 25        referred to     Para4
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                                     872
MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA v. CHRISTIAN MEDICAL                             873
             COLLEGE VELLORE

       2013 (13) SCR 96         referred to     Para4                      A
       1987 (1) SCR 702         referred to     Para4
       CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Review Petition (C) Nos.
2 I 59-2268of2013 and Review Petition (C) Nos. 2048-2157 of20 I 3 in
Transferred Case (C) Nos. 98-I05, I07-I08, I IO-I39, 142, 144-145 of
20I2& 1-5, 7-25,28-49,53,58-73, 75-76,& 107-108of2013.                     B
                                WITH.
       Review Petition (C) No. 1956 of 2013 in T.C. (C) No. I 0 I of
2012
      Fromthe Judgment and Order dated 18.07.. 2013 of the Hon'ble         c
Court in T. C. (C) NO. 98 OF 20I2.
     Vikas Singh, Sr. Adv., Gaurav Sharma, Ms. Deepeika Kalia,
Dhawal Mohan, Ms. Amandeep Kaur, Prateek Bhatia, Kapeesh Seth,
Ms. Vara Gaur, Prashant Bhushan, Advs. for the Petitioner.
      Ms. Pinky Anand, ASG, K.K. Venugopal, Shashi Kiran Shetty,           D
Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, Rakesh Dwivedi, B. Adi Narayana Rao, V. Giri,
Subramonium Prasad, Ajit Kumar Sinha, Sr. Advs., Ms. Rekha Pandey,
Ajay Sharma, R.K. Rathore, R.S. Nagar, Amit Sharma, S.S. Rawat.
Karan Seth, Sanchit Kumar, Akash Jindal, (For D.S. Mahra), Sharan
Thakur, Vijay Kumar Paradeshi, Ms. Fara Fathima, (For Ramesh Babu          E
M.R.), Ranjit B. Raut, (For Ms. Bina Gupta}, Ms. Hetu Arora Sehi,
Naveen R. Nath, Ms. L.M. Bhat, Krishna Srinivasan, E.R. Kumar, Ms.
Geethi Aara, Abhinay, Ms. S. Lakshmi Iyer, Ms. Apoorva Garg, Ms.
Sansriti Pathak, (For Mis. Parekh & Co.), Rakesh K. Sharma, Ms. lyangar
Sheekharanjani A., Ms. Sangita Chauhan, B. Balaji, Utkarsh Srivastava,     F
Ashmeet Singh, Sharan Thakur, Vijay Kumar Paradeshi, Ms. Fara
Fathima, (For Dr. Sushi] Balwada), Ashwarya Sinha, Tara Chandra
Sharma, Ms. Neelam Sharma, Rajeev Sharma, Nishant R.
Katneshwarkar, Arpit Rai, V.G Pragasam, S. Prabhu Ramasubramanian,
Abdhesh Choudhary, Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi, C.S.N. Mohan Rao, A.
                                                                           G
Ramesh, Syed Ahmad Naqvi, Ms. Sh ii pi Gupta, Lakshmi Raman Singh,
Guntur Prabhakar, Anil Kumar Mishra-I, Ravindra Keshavrao Adsure,
K.K. Mani, Nimimesh Dubey, G.B. Sathe, P:N. Puri, Advs. for the
Respondents.

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874            SUPREME COURT REPORTS                           [2016] 2 S.C.R.


A           The following Order of the Court was delivered
                                     ORDER
             I. These review petitions have been filed against the judgment of
      this Court dated 18'" July, 2013 passed in Christian Medical College Vellore
      & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors. reported in (2014) 2 SCC 305. The
 B
      review petitions were placed before a Three-Judge Bench and notices
      were issued on 23" October, 2013 and thereafter, it was brought to the
      notice of the Bench that Civil Appeal No.4060/2009 and connected
      matters involving an identical issue, had been referred to a Five-Judge
      Bench. Accordingly, on 21" January, 2016, these review petitions were
 C    ordered to be heard by a Five-Judge Bench.
            2. On 21" January, 2016, notice was ordered to be served through
      substituted service and in pursuance of the said order, necessary
      publication was made in two newspapers and proof thereof was filed on
      15" February, 2016. Thereafter, we have heard the matters.
 D
            3. Civil Appeal No.4060/2009 and its connected matters have been
      heard and order has been reserved on 16'' March, 2016.
            4. We have heard the counsel on either side at great length and
      also considered the various judgments cited by them, which include
 E    judgments cited by the non-applicants on the scope of review in Kamlesh
      Verma vs. Mayawati and Others (2013) 8 SCC 320, Union oflndia vs.
      Namit Sharma (2013) 10 SCC 359 and Sheonandan Paswan vs. State
      ofBihar and others (1987) 1 SCC 288.
             5. After giving our thoughtful and due consideration, we are of the
 F    view that the judgment delivered in Christian Medical College (supra)
      needs reconsideration. We do not propose to state reasons in detail at
      this stage so as to see that it may not prejudicially affect the hearing of
      the matters. For this purpose we have kept in mind the following
      observations appearing in the Constitution Bench judgment of th is Court
 G    in She6nandan Paswan (supra) as under:
             " .... If the Review Bench of the apex court were required to give
             reasons, the Review Bench would have to discuss the case fully
             and elaborately and expose what according to it constitutes an
             error in the reasoning ofthe Original Bench and this would inevitably
             result in pre-judgment of the case and prejudice its re-hearing. A
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MEDICAL COUNCIL OJ; INDIA v. CHRISTIAN MEDICAL                                  875
             COLLEGE VELLORE

      reasoned order allowing a review petition and setting aside the           A
      order sought lobe reviewed would, even before the re-hearing of
      the case, dictate the direction of the re-hearing and such direction,
      whether of binding or of persuasive value, would conceivably in
      most cases adversely affect the losing party at the re-hearing of
      the case. We are therefore of the view that the Review Bench in            B
      the present case could not be faulted for not giving reasons for
      allowing the Review Petition and directing re-heari~g of the appeal.
      It is significant to note that all the three Judges of the Review
      Bench were unanimous in taking the view that "any decision of
      the facts and circumstances which ... constitutes errors apparent
                                                                                c
      on the face ofrecord and my reasons for the findings that these
      facts and circumstances constitute errors apparent on the face of
      record resulting in the success of the review petition, may have
      the possibility of prejudicing the appeal which as a result of my
      decision has to be re-heard ...."
                                                                                D
       6. Suffice it is to mention that the majority view has not taken into
consideration some binding precedents and more particularly, we find
that there was no discussion among the members of the Bench before
pronouncement of the judgment.
      7 .. We, therefore, allow these review petitions and recall the            E
judgment dated l 8•h July, 2013 and direct that the matters be heard afresh.
The review petitions stand disposed of as al lowed.
Devika Gujral                                            Revie'" di'sposed of