Supreme Court To Lay Down Law On High Court's Power To Recall Pronounced Order And Rehear Case

The Supreme Court on Friday (October 4) said that it will lay down the law on whether a High Court can recall an order pronounced in the court and rehear the case.

A bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih had on Monday expressed strong disapproval of the Madras High Court's decision to rehear a quashing petition in a money laundering case involving former Director General of Police (DGP) Jaffar Sait, despite having previously allowed the petition.

The court had also suggested that it decide the quashing petition on merits. However, the Directorate of Enforcement opposed the suggestion.

“We thought the respondent will take a stand so that we need not go into it. But they want to contest so we will have to go into this question. Now we will have to lay down the law…the manner in which High Court has acted, we will have to lay down the in light of the facts disclosed in the report (of the HC Registry)”, Justice Oka remarked.

“The prayer in the Criminal OP was for quashing ECIR. Several issues will have to be gone into including the issue of the manner in which order has been passed by the High Court. List for hearing at the end of the cause list on 22nd November 2024. In the meanwhile ECIR and all proceedings based on the ECIR will remain stayed. Even the proceedings of Criminal OP no. 0017762 of 2024 are stayed”, the Court stated in its order.

“So the issue will have to be thrashed out. We are on the wider issue. When the court pronounces an order, that issue will have to be resolved”, Justice Oka said after dictating the order.

As per the report submitted by the HC registry to the Supreme Court, the HC had earlier pronounced the judgment quashing the case, but later recalled it and kept the case for rehearing. The HC has again reserved judgment on the case. The quashing of the ED case had been sought on the ground that the predicate offence had been quashed.

On Monday, the Court said that as the predicate offence is gone, the money laundering case will also go, suggesting that the matter be resolved in the Supreme Court on merits so the parties won't need to return to the HC.

Today, Advocate Zoheb Hossain opposing the suggestion told the Court predicate offence remained active against the then Housing Minister of Tamil Nadu, I. Periasami.

Hence, the Court said that it would need to resolve the broader issue of legality of rehearing a case after an order had already been pronounced. Justice Oka noted that while there were no direct Supreme Court rulings on such a situation, there were some High Court judgments, and asked the counsels for the parties to present them.

Hossain submitted the Supreme Court has held that an order that had been pronounced but not yet signed could always be recalled without any application from a party.

Justice Oka questioned whether parties were required to be heard before such a recall, pointing out that in the present case, the parties had not been heard before the recall of the earlier order.

Hossain answered that the parties are not required to be heard before recall.

Background

Sait's quashing petition before the HC challenges the ED's Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed on June 22, 2020, and the ensuing proceedings against him. The HC had initially quashed the ED's complaint on August 21, 2024, but later decided to rehear the matter, prompting the current SLP before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had on the previous hearing stayed the proceedings before the HC and sought a report from the Registrar General of the HC on whether the petition had indeed been disposed of on August 21, 2024.

The case against Sait involves allegations of illegally acquiring a plot from the Tamil Nadu Housing Board in 2011. A corruption case filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, which was the predicate offence for the money laundering case, was quashed by the Madras High Court in 2019.

Case no. – Diary No. 39548/2024

Case Title – MS Jaffar Sait v. Directorate of Enforcement

Click Here To Read/Download Order