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2017 (7) TMI 1385 - HC - Indian LawsValidity of Supreme Court's direction - whether ambiguous or incongruent and decide a different course of adjudication? - Does not propriety demand this Court to advise either party to approach the Supreme Court and seek clarification if this Court has perceived any ambiguity in the direction, or if it has felt the order to be inherently contradictory - HELD THAT:- There are two options. First, putting an indeterminate interpretative spin on the Supreme Court's Order; then, we should either hear the review petitions already closed by another coordinate Bench, or hear the appeals afresh as directed by the coordinate Bench. This, again, amounts to our ignoring the Supreme Court's Order. In our respectful view, neither is permissible, for it breaches Article 141 of the Constitution - Second, we should disregard the coordinate Bench's direction issued on 24.11.2010, reopen the review petition, and proceed further. But this course contradicts the common-law doctrine: law of the case. Indeed, as we have already observed the law-of-the-case doctrine is not iron clad. Applying the doctrine and sustaining the order, dt. 24.11.2010, we reckon, will amount to this Court's clarifying-rather than interpreting-the Supreme Court's judgment. And it is inadvisable, nay impermissible. This Court cannot ignore the Supreme Court's express direction or observation on the supposed ground that it is either ambiguous or incongruent and decide a different course of adjudication - propriety demands this Court to advise either party to approach the Supreme Court and seek clarification if this Court has perceived any ambiguity in the direction, or if it has felt the order to be inherently contradictory - this Bench ignore a judicial directive-procedural though-of a coordinate Bench and take a different view ignoring the law-of-the-case principle to prevent miscarriage of justice.
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