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Ingredients Involved In The Doctrine of Res Judicata

In The Jamia Masjid v. Sri K V Rudrappa (since Dead) By Lrs. & Ors, appellant moved the Supreme Court in a Special Leave Petition to challenge the decision of the Single judge wherein the Hobble Judge had dismissed their appeal being barred by the principle of res judicata.

The Supreme Court when into a detailed analysis of the said principal and concluded that in order to attract the principles of res judicata, the following ingredients must be fulfilled:

(i) The matter must have been directly and substantially in issue in the former suit;

(ii) The matter must be heard and finally decided by the Court in the former suit;

(iii) The former suit must be between the same parties or between parties under whom they or any of them claim, litigating under the same title; and

(iv) The Court in which the former suit was instituted is competent to try the subsequent suit or the suit in which such issue has been subsequently raised.

A three judge bench of SC in Sushil Kumar Mehta v. Gobind Ram Bohra ((1990) 1 SCC 193) held that the principle of res judicata cannot be fit into the pigeon hole of ‘mixed question of law and facts’ in every case. Rather, the plea of res judicata would be a question of law or fact or a mixed question of both depending on the issue that is claimed to have been previously decided. The court while determining the applicability of the plea of res judicata would determine if there has been any material alteration in the facts and law applicable

 The locus classicus on the point of determining if an issue was ‘directly and substantially’ decided in the previous suit is the decision of Justice M Jagannadha Rao (writing for a two judge bench) in Sajjadanashin Syed MD B.E. Edr. (D) by Lrs. v. Musa Dadabhai Ummer. (2000) 3 SCC 350. During the course of the judgment, the Court analysed the expression “directly and substantially in issue” in Section 11 and laid down the twin test of essentiality and necessity:

“12. It will be noticed that the words used in Section 11 CPC are “directly and substantially in issue”. If the matter was in issue directly and substantially in a prior litigation and decided against a party then the decision would be res judicata in a subsequent proceeding. Judicial decisions have however held that if a matter was only “collaterally or incidentally” in issue and decided in an earlier proceeding, the finding therein would not ordinarily be res judicata in a latter proceeding where the matter is directly and substantially in issue.”

[…]

18. In India, Mulla has referred to similar tests (Mulla, 15th Edn., p. 104). The learned author says: a matter in respect of which relief is claimed in an earlier suit can be said to be generally a matter “directly and substantially” in issue but it does not mean that if the matter is one in respect of which no relief is sought it is not directly or substantially in issue. It may or may not be. It is possible that it was “directly and substantially” in issue and it may also be possible that it was only collaterally or incidentally in issue, depending upon the facts of the case. The question arises as to what is the test for deciding into which category a case falls? One test is that if the issue was “necessary” to be decided for adjudicating on the principal issue and was decided, it would have to be treated as “directly and substantially” in issue and if it is clear that the judgment was in fact based upon that decision, then it would be res judicata in a latter case (Mulla, p. 104). One has to examine the plaint, the written statement, the issues and the judgment to find out if the matter was directly and substantially in issue (Ishwer Singh v. Sarwan Singh [AIR 1965 SC 948] and Syed Mohd. Salie Labbai v. Mohd. Hanifa [(1976) 4 SCC 780 : AIR 1976 SC 1569] ). We are of the view that the above summary in Mulla is a correct statement of the law.

19. We have here to advert to another principle of caution referred to by Mulla (p. 105):

“It is not to be assumed that matters in respect of which issues have been framed are all of them directly and substantially in issue. Nor is there any special significance to be attached to the fact that a particular issue is the first in the list of issues. Which of the matters are directly in issue and which collaterally or incidentally, must be determined on the facts of each case. A material test to be applied is whether the court considers the adjudication of the issue material and essential for its decision.”

40. In view of the authorities cited above, the twin test that is used for the identification of whether an issue has been conclusively decided in the previous suit is:

A. Whether the adjudication of the issue was ‘necessary’ for deciding on the principle issue (‘the necessity test’); and

B. Whether the judgment in the suit is based upon the decision on that issue (‘the essentiality test’).

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