Larger Bench Judgment Will Prevail Regardless Of Number Of Judges In Majority : Supreme Court

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a judgment delivered by a larger bench will prevail irrespective of the number of judges constituting the majority.  To illustrate, the judgment of a 7-judge bench delivered with 4:3 majority will prevail over a unanimous 5-judge bench.

A 5-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, M. M. Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia gave this ruling while answering the second issue in the case Trimurthi Fragrances (P) Ltd versus Govt of NCT of Delhi.

The bench pointed out that under Article 145(5), the concurrence of majority judges is viewed as judgment of the Court. It also noted that the same issue was answered by Justice Nageswara Rao's judgment in Dr.Jayasree Patil case (Maratha quota case).

The issue was referred by a 2-judge comprising Justices RF Nariman and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul in 2017 observing :

"If a unanimous 5 Judge Bench decision is overruled by a 7 Judge Bench, with four learned Judges speaking for the majority, and three learned Judges speaking for the minority, can it be said that the 5 Judge Bench has been overruled? Under the present practice, it is clear that the view of four learned Judges speaking for the majority in a 7 Judge Bench will prevail over a unanimous 5 Judge Bench decision, because they happen to speak for a 7 Judge Bench. Has the time come to tear the judicial veil and hold that in reality a view of five learned Judges cannot be overruled by a view of four learned Judges speaking for a Bench of 7 learned Judges? This is a question which also needs to be addressed and answered".

The main issue referred in the case is whether without amending the exemption provision/notification issued under a specific power, a general notification prescribing the rate of tax under different provisions relating to determination of tax liability under the Act can be deemed to have withdrawn the exemption merely because the exemption provision and charging provision are under the same Act and the same authority.

In that regard, the 5-judge bench noted that there was no conflict between Kothari Products Ltd. v. State of A.P and CST vs Agra Belting Works cases and hence the reference was incompetent.

"In our considered opinion there is no conflict between the Kothari Products (supra) line of cases and the Agra Belting line of cases. TheKothari Products (supra) line of cases was on the question of whether "tobacco" or other goods specified in the First Schedule to the ADE Act and hence exempted from Sales Tax under State sales tax enactments, can be made exigible to tax under the State enactments by amending theSchedule thereto. On the other hand, Agra Belting Works (supra) line of cases was on the question of interplay between general exemption of specified goods from sales tax under Section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act and specification of rates of sales tax under Section 3­A of the said Act. This Court held that goods exempted from sales tax under Section 4 would be exigible to tax by virtue of subsequent notification under Section 3­A specifying the rate of sales tax for any specific item of the class of goods earlier exempted under Section 4. There being no conflict, the reference to Constitution Bench is incompetent.  The cases may be placed for decision before the Regular Bench".

Case Title : Trimurthi Fragrances (P) Ltd versus Govt of NCT of Delhi.

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 778

Headnotes

Precedents - A  judgment delivered by a larger bench will prevail irrespective of the number of judges constituting the majority-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 (Para 19) 

Click here to read/download the judgment