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TMI Blog2022 (8) TMI 1337X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2014 moved in and Civil Revision Petition No.2787 /2013). As a result of allowing the review petitions, the common judgment and order dated 09th July, 2013 passed by the predecessor Bench upholding the common order dated 23rd March, 2013 in Cases No. F1/3/2005 and F1/4/2005 passed by the Joint Collector, Mahabubnagar, has been set aside and as a sequel thereto, the orders dated 31st March, 1967 passed by the Tahsildar, Shadnagar, accepting the surrender of protected tenancy rights by the ancestors of the appellant have been confirmed. 3. The appeals have a chequered history that dates back to the year 1967. The facts relevant for deciding the present appeals are as follows:- 3.1 Late Shri Chandra Reddy and late Shri Chenna Reddy, both sons of Buchi Reddy, were protected tenants in respect of separate parcels of land situated in different survey numbers of Kammadanam Village, Shadnagar Mandal, Mahabubnagar District Hereinafter referred to as 'subject land'. The recorded landlord of the protected tenants was late Venkat Anantha Reddy, who was the Karta of a joint family comprising of himself and his brother, late Laxma Reddy. On the basis of an oral partition of the land that took ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... struck off on the basis of the purported surrender proceedings conducted by the Tehsildar in the year 1967. Challenging the said surrender proceedings, the predecessors-in-interest of the appellant being the protected tenants, preferred appeals before the Joint Collector in February, 2002 along with an application seeking condonation of delay. The said appeals were allowed by the Joint Collector, Mahabubnagar, being the Appellate Authority, vide order dated 2nd April, 2005. Aggrieved by the said order, the respondents approached the High Court of Andhra Pradesh For short 'High Court' raising a plea that it was an ex-parte order and filed two Civil Revision Petitions (CRP No. 4620/2005 and CRP No. 4988/2005), which were allowed, vide order dated 19th September, 2006 and the matters were remanded back for fresh disposal. On a re-hearing, the Appellate Authority passed an order on 23rd March, 2013 whereby, the order dated 31st March, 1967 passed by the Tehsildar, Shadnagar accepting the surrender of the protected tenancy rights by the ancestors of the appellant, was set aside and the original entries in respect of the land in the final record of tenancy as existing prior to 1967, were ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e respondents No. 1 to 6 did not take a plea that the documents subsequently filed by them, were not in their knowledge when they had filed the civil revision petitions and the first set of review petitions before the High Court for attracting the provisions of Order XLVII Rule 1 CPC. Stating that the scope of review is very limited and a review application can only be entertained if there is any error apparent on the face of the record, which the respondents No. 1 to 6 have failed to point out in the instant case, learned Senior Counsel submitted that the High Court ought to have dismissed the same outright. It was argued that by virtue of the impugned order, the High Court has virtually treated the review petitions filed by the respondents No. 1 to 6 as independent appeals, which is impermissible. To buttress the aforesaid submissions made on the limited ambit and scope of a review petition and the bar on filing successive review petitions, the decisions of this Court in Babboo Alias Kalyandas and Others v. State of Madhya Pradesh (1979) 4 SCC 74 and Lilly Thomas and Others v. Union of India and Others (2000) 6 SCC 224 have been cited. 5. Another plea sought to be taken on behal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eferred by them were disposed of vide order dated 4th July, 2014 that has been extracted in para 5 hereinabove. 7. Learned Senior Advocate submitted that in the light of the permission granted by this Court, the respondents had filed review petitions in the Civil Revision Petitions before the High Court after obtaining certified copies of the relevant documents forming a part of the revenue records. Only after considering the said documents did the learned Single Judge allow the review petitions for cogent and valid reasons that do not deserve any interference. It has been canvassed on behalf of the respondents that the legal heirs of the protected tenant had knowledge about the surrender of the subject land right from the year 1967 to 2001 and they were also aware of the fact that the names of their ancestors were not reflected in the protected tenants register. The real position is that the ancestors of the appellant were never in possession of the subject land after 1967. Despite that, they had approached the Appellate Authority challenging the surrender proceedings after a passage of 35 years. Contending that said appeals were highly belated and deserved to be thrown out on th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urisdiction. 11. Section 114 of the CPC which is the substantive provision, deals with the scope of review and states as follows: "Review:- Subject as aforesaid, any person considering himself aggrieved:- (a) by a decree or order from which an appeal is allowed by this Code, but from which no appeal has been preferred; (b) by a decree or order from which no appeal is allowed by this Code; or (c) by a decision on a reference from a Court of Small Causes, may apply for a review of judgment to the court which passed the decree or made the order, and the court may make such order thereon as it thinks fit." 12. The grounds available for filing a review application against a judgment have been set out in Order XLVII of the CPC in the following words: "1. Application for review of judgment - (1) Any person considering himself aggrieved - (a) by a decree or order from which an appeal is allowed, but from which no appeal has been preferred, (b) by a decree or order from which no appeal is allowed, or (c) by a decision on a reference from a Court of Small Causes, and who, from the discovery of new and important matter or evidence which, after the exercise of due dili ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t in earlier by judicial fallibility. ... The present stage is not a virgin ground but review of an earlier order which has the normal feature of finality.' " (emphasis added) 15. In Parsion Devi and Others v. Sumitri Devi and Others (1997) 8 SCC 715 , stating that an error that is not self- evident and the one thathas to be detected by the process of reasoning, cannot be described as an error apparent on the face of the record for the Court to exercise the powers of review, this Court held as under: "7. It is well settled that review proceedings have to be strictly confined to the ambit and scope of Order 47 Rule 1 CPC. In Thungabhadra Industries Ltd. v. Govt. of A.P. 1964 SCR (5) 174 this Court opined: '11. What, however, we are now concerned with is whether the statement in the order of September 1959 that the case did not involve any substantial question of law is an 'error apparent on the face of the record'. The fact that on the earlier occasion the Court held on an identical state of facts that a substantial question of law arose would not per se be conclusive, for the earlier order itself might be erroneous. Similarly, even if the statement was wrong, it would not ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... preferred, (b) by a decree or order from which no appeal is allowed, or (c) by a decision on a reference from a Court of Small Causes, and who, from the discovery of new and important matter or evidence which, after the exercise of due diligence was not within his knowledge or could not be produced by him at the time when the decree was passed or order made, or on account of some mistake or error apparent on the face of the record, or for any other sufficient reason, desires to obtain a review of the decree passed or order made against him, may apply for a review of judgment to the Court which passed the decree or made the order.' Under Order XL Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules no review lies except on the ground of error apparent on the face of the record in criminal cases. Order XL Rule 5 of the Supreme Court Rules provides that after an application for review has been disposed of no further application shall be entertained in the same matter. XXX XXX XXX 56. It follows, therefore, that the power of review can be exercised for correction of a mistake but not to substitute a view. Such powers can be exercised within the limits of the statute dealing with the exerci ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nds at least analogous to those specified in the rule" as was held in Chajju Ram v. Neki Ram AIR 1922 PC 112 and approved by this Court in Moran Mar Basselios Catholicos. v. Most Rev. Mar Poulose Athanasius 1955 SCR 520. Error apparent on the face of the proceedings is an error which is based on clear ignorance or disregard of the provisions of law. in T.C. Basappa v. T. Nagappa 1955 SCR 250 this Court held that such error is an error which is a patent error and not a mere wrong decision. In Hari Vishnu Kamath v. Ahmad AIR 1955 SC 233, it was held: "It is essential that it should be something more than a mere error; it must be one which must be manifest on the face of the record. The real difficulty with reference to this matter, however, is not so much in the statement of the principle as in its application to the facts of a particular case. When does an error, cease to be mere error and become an error apparent on the face of the record? Learned Counsel on either side were unable to suggest any clear-cut rule by which the boundary between the two classes of errors could be demarcated. Mr. Pathak for the first respondent contended on the strength of certain obser ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the record. To permit the review petitioner to argue on a question of appreciation of evidence would amount to converting a review petition into an appeal in disguise." (emphasis added) 18. Under the garb of filing a review petition, a party cannot be permitted to repeat old and overruled arguments for reopening the conclusions arrived at in a judgment. 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. This point has been elucidated in Jain Studios Ltd. V. Shin Satellite Public Co. Ltd. (2006) 5 SCC 501 where it was held thus: "11. So far as the grievance of the applicant on merits is concerned, the learned counsel for the opponent is right in submitting that virtually the applicant seeks the same relief which had been sought at the time of arguing the main matter and had been negatived. Once such a prayer had been refused, no review petition would lie which would convert rehearing of the original matter. It is settled law that the power of review cannot be confused with appellate power which enables a superior court to correct all errors committed by a subordinate court. It ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nless the material error, manifest on the face of the order, undermines its soundness or results in miscarriage of justice. (v) A review is by no means an appeal in disguise whereby an erroneous decision is re-heard and corrected but lies only for patent error. (vi) The mere possibility of two views on the subject cannot be a ground for review. (vii) The error apparent on the face of the record should not be an error which has to be fished out and searched. (viii) The appreciation of evidence on record is fully within the domain of the appellate court, it cannot be permitted to be advanced in the review petition. (ix) Review is not maintainable when the same relief sought at the time of arguing the main matter had been negatived." 20. In Aribam Tuleshwar Sharma v. Aribam Pishak Sharma (1979) 4 SCC 389, this Court was examining an order passed by the Judicial Commissioner who was reviewing an earlier judgment that went in favour of the appellant, while deciding a review application filed by the respondents therein who took a ground that the predecessor Court had overlooked two important documents that showed that the respondents were in possession of the sites through which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m 'mistake or error apparent' by its very connotation signifies an error which is evident per se from the record of the case and does not require detailed examination, scrutiny and elucidation either of the facts or the legal position. If an error is not self-evident and detection thereof requires long debate and process of reasoning, it cannot be treated as an error apparent on the face of the record for the purpose of Order 47 Rule 1 CPC or Section 22(3) (f) of the Act. To put it differently an order or decision or judgment cannot be corrected merely because it is erroneous in law or on the ground that a different view could have been taken by the court/tribunal on a point of fact or law. In any case, while exercising the power of review, the court/tribunal concerned cannot sit in appeal over its judgment/decision". (emphasis added) 23. In S. Nagaraj and Others v. State of Karnataka and Another 1993 Supp (4) SCC 595, this Court explained as to when a review jurisdiction could be treated as statutory or inherent and held thus : "18. Justice is a virtue which transcends all barriers. Neither the rules of procedure nor technicalities of law can stand in its way. The order of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... an appeal. A judgment can be open to review if there is a mistake or an error apparent on the face of the record, but an error that has to be detected by a process of reasoning, cannot be described as an error apparent on the face of the record for the Court to exercise its powers of review under Order XLVII Rule 1 CPC. In the guise of exercising powers of 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. A judgment may also be open to review when any new or important matter of evidence has emerged after passing of the judgment, subject to the condition that such evidence was not within the knowledge of the party seeking review or could not be produced by it when the order was made despite undertaking an exercise of due diligence. 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. Yet another circumstance referred to in Order XLVII Rule 1 for reviewi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ives of the protected tenants were not parties to the alleged surrender proceedings before the then Tahsildar in the year 1967. There is nothing on record to show that they were ever dispossessed from the lands, so that they can take necessary steps under relevant provisions of the Act before the authorities concerned. After coming to know about earlier proceedings which are stated to be in the year 1967, they rushed to the Joint Collector with the present appeals. There is nothing on record to impute knowledge of the proceedings of the year 1967 to them at any time prior to filing of the appeals before the Joint Collector. 3. Though the alleged surrender of protected tenancy rights by one protected tenant and three legal representatives of the other protected tenant was stated to be in the year 1967, it is pointed out by the Joint Collector in the impugned order that the original land holder/landlord sought for exemption from computing these lands in his holding under the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973. If really the alleged surrender of lands by the protected tenants in favour of the landlord was in the year 1967, the landlord would no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... itation, the purported error on the part of the Appellate Authority in calling for the records from the office of the Revenue Divisional Officer for deciding the case and the alleged misconstruction of the ceiling proceedings conducted by the Land Reforms Tribunal, all of which were earlier argued and did not find favour with the High Court. But, at no stage was a plea taken by the respondents with regard to the discovery of new documents which could not have been produced by them after undertaking due diligence before the order dated 9th July, 2013 came to be passed. When the first set of review petitions were dismissed by the learned Single Judge by a detailed order dated 20th February, 2014, it was specifically observed in para 2 that the respondents did not plead that any new facts had come to light for the consideration of the Court. In fact, a perusal of the said order shows that the respondents only sought to reargue the points that had already been taken by them and were rejected outrightly, vide judgment dated 9th July, 2013. 30. The sequence of events narrated in the order dated 20th February, 2014, passed by the High Court while dismissing the first set of review applic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d by the common judgment and orders dated 9th July, 2013 and the review order dated 20th February, 2014 passed by the High Court. 32. Pertinently, this Court had declined to entertain the said petitions preferred by the respondents but having regard to the submission made on their behalf that they would be in a position to file documents to show that there was surrender of tenancy on the part of the protected tenants and their legal heirs, it was left open to the respondents to file a review petition before the High Court. It was only thereafter that the respondents woke up to filing certified copies of those documents, xerox copies whereof had already been filed by them in the second round of revision petitions preferred before the High Court. That being the position, the respondents cannot be heard to state that the documents in question were not to their knowledge or that the certified copies of the revenue record could not be produced by them before the High Court passed the common judgment and order dated 09th July, 2013. At the time of filing the second set of review petitions, the respondents raised a plea that the learned Single Judge did not consider the relevant record p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vit to substantiate the plea taken by the respondents at such a belated stage that the documents sought to be filed by them with the second set of review petitions had come to light after passing of the judgment and order dated 9th July, 2013. Under the garb of the liberty granted to them, the respondents have tried to fill in the glaring loopholes and introduce evidence in the review proceedings that was all along in their power and possession and ought to have seen the light of the day much earlier. In fact, it appears that the Civil Revision Petitions were originally argued to the hilt on several other grounds, not limited just to the revenue record, which were all considered and turned down as meritless. Therefore, we have no hesitation in holding that 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 and order dated 9th July, 2013 particularly, when five opportunities enumerated in para 31 above, were available to them for production of the said documents, which were all frittered away, one by one. 35. In our opinion, even otherwise, recourse to successive review petitions aga ..... 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