Supreme Court’s Reiteration: All Courts of India Are Bound by Top Court Judgments

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has reiterated that all the courts in India are bound by the judgments given by the Supreme Court of India. The bench of Justice R. F. Nariman passed this observation, while considering an SLP filed against a Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment in a land acquisition matter.

It was argued in the petition that the Madhya Pradesh High Court has followed the judgment given by the apex court in the case of Gurpreet Singh v UOI.

“We make it clear that this apprehension is totally without basis for the reason that all the courts in this country, including the Executive Courts are bound by the judgments of the apex court,” the judge said.

He made it clear that this wasn’t a new phenomenon put in place by the apex court. “It was just provided in our Constitution itself,” he said. Article 141 of the Constitution of India itself provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India.

As the highest court in India, the Supreme Court’s judgments are binding on all other courts in the country. It serves both as the final court of appeals and final interpreter of the Constitution. Owing to these vast powers, many including Attorney General K.K. Venugopal have labelled it among the most powerful courts in the world. Its authority stems from the Constitution of India.

In State of Gujarat vs Ramprakash P. Puri and Ors., in 1963, the Gujarat High Court observed: “A judgment consists of statements of facts, summary of arguments, decision of the Court and the reasons therefor. In their judgments, High Court Judges may state their view of the law and their interpretation of the law. High Courts do not declare the law as the Supreme Court does. High Courts merely decide the cases before them by applying the law as they understand it to the facts of each individual case. They may give reasons for the decision. The statement of facts contained in a judgment is not binding on other Judges of the High Court unless the statement is res judicata.”