Order XXI - Special Leave Petitions (Civil) SLP : Supreme Court Rules 2013

How to file Special Leave Petitions (Civil)? Order XXI of Supreme Court Rules 2013

 

Order XXI of Supreme Court Rules 2013 : "Special Leave Petitions (Civil)"

1. Where certificate of fitness to appeal to the Court was refused in a case by the High Court, a petition for special leave to appeal to the Court shall, subject to the provisions of sections 4,5,12 and 14 of the Limitation
Act, 1963 (36 of 1963), be lodged in the Court within sixty days from the date of the order of refusal and in any other case within ninety days from the date of the Judgment or Order sought to be appealed from:

Provided that where an application for leave to appeal to the High Court from the Judgment of a single Judge of that Court has been made and refused, in computing the period of limitation in that case under this rule, the period from the making of that application and the rejection thereof shall also be excluded.

 

Explanation - For purposes of this rule, the expression 'order of refusal' means the order refusing to grant the certificate under article 134A of the Constitution being a certificate of tile nature referred to in article 132 or article 133 of the Constitution on merits and shall not include an order rejecting the application on the ground of limitation or on the ground that such an application is not maintainable.

2. Where the period of limitation is claimed from the date of the refusal or a certificate under article 134A of the Constitution, being a certificate of the nature referred to in article 132 or article 133 of the Constitution, it shall not be necessary to file the order refusing the certificate, but the petition for special leave shall be accompanied by an affidavit stating the date of the Judgment sought to be appealed from, the date on which the application for a certificate of fitness to appeal to the Court was made to the High Court, the date of the order refusing the certificate, and the ground or grounds on which the certificate was refused and in particular whether the application for the certificate was dismissed as being out of time.

3. (1) (a) The petition for seeking special leave to appeal (SLP) filed before the Court, under Article 136 of the Constitution shall be in Form No. 28 appended to the rules. No separate application for interim relief need be filed. Interim prayer if any should be incorporated in Form No. 28


(b) Along with the petition, list of dates in chronological order with relevant material facts or events pertaining to each of the dates shall be furnished.

(c) SLPs shall be confined only to the pleadings before the Court / tribunal whose order is challenged. However, the petitioner may, with due notice to the respondent, and with leave of the Court urge additional grounds, at the time of hearing.

(d) (i) The petitioner may produce copies of such petition/documents which are part of the record in the case before the Court / tribunal below if and to the extent necessary to answer, the question of law arising for consideration in the petition or to make out the grounds urged in the SLP, as Annexures to the petition-numbering them as Annexure 1, 2, 3 and so on. The documents filed or annexures shall be arranged in chronological order. The documents shall not be indexed collectively and each document shall be indexed separately. The Petition, where it refers to annexures with annexure number, shall also indicate the page No (s).

(ii) If the petitioner wants to produce any document which was not part of the records in the Court below he shall make a separate application Stating the reasons for not producing it in the Court / tribunal below and the necessity for its production in the Court and seek leave of the Court for producing such additional documents.

(iii) The English version of the relevant provisions of the Constitution, statutes, ordinances, rules, regulations, bye laws, orders, etc. referred to in the impugned judgment or order shall be filed as Appendix to the Special Leave Petition.

(e) Every petition shall be supported by the affidavit of the petitioners or one of the petitioners as the case may be or by any person authorised by the petitioner in which the deponent shall state that the facts stated in the petition are true and the statement of dates and facts furnished along with the SLP are true to his knowledge and/or information and belief.

 

(f) The papers of the SLP shall be arranged in the following order:

(i) List of dates in terms of clause (b) of Sub-rule (1).

(ii) Certified copies of the judgment and order against which the leave to appeal is sought for.

(iii) The special leave petition in the prescribed Form No. 28.

(iv) Appendix containing relevant provision of the Constitution, statutes, ordinances, rules, regulations, bye laws, orders, etc.

(v) Annexures, if any, filed alongwith the SLP, giving the page number (s).

(g) If notice is ordered on the special leave petition, the petitioner should take steps to serve the notice on the respondent:

Provided that in the case of a special leave petition against an interlocutory order or in any proceeding pending in the Court below, the notice may be served on the advocate appearing for the party in the Court/ tribunal before whom the matter is pending.

(2) No petition shall be entertained by the Registry unless it contains a statement as to whether the petitioner had filed any petition for special leave to appeal against the impugned Judgment or order earlier and if so, with what result, duly supported by an affidavit of the petitioner or his Pairokar only.

(3) The Court shall, if it finds that the petitioner has not disclosed 'the fact of filing a similar petition earlier and its dismissal by this Court, dismiss the second petition if it is pending or, if special leave has already
been granted therein, revoke the same.

(4) The petition shall also contain a statement as to whether the matter was contested in the Court appealed from and if so, the full name and address of all the contesting parties shall be given in the statement of facts in the petition.

(5) The Special Leave Petition shall also contain a statement as to whether a letters patent appeal or writ appeal lies against the impugned judgment or order and whether the said remedy has been availed.

4. The petition shall be accompanied by-

(i) a certified copy of the Judgment or order appealed from; and

(ii) an affidavit in support of the statement of facts contained in the petition.

5. No annexures to the petition shall be accepted unless such annexures are certified copies of documents which have formed part of the record of the case in the Court sought to be appealed from; provided that uncertified copies of documents may be accepted as annexures if such copies are affirmed to be true copies upon affidavit.

6. The petitioner shall file at least three spare sets of the petition and of the accompanying papers.

 

7. Where any person is sought to be impleaded in the petition as the legal representative of any party to the proceedings in the Court below, the petition shall contain a prayer for bringing on record such person as the legal representative and shall be supported by an affidavit setting out the facts showing him to be the proper person to be entered on the record as such legal representative.

8. Where at any time between the filing of the petition for special leave to appeal and the hearing thereof the record becomes defective by reason of the death or change of status of a party to the appeal or for any other reason, an application shall be made to the Court stating who is the proper person to be substituted or entered on the record in place of or in addition to the party on record. Provisions contained in rule 30 of Order XIX shall apply to the hearing of such applications.

9. (1) Unless a caveat as prescribed by rule 2 of Order XV has been lodged by the other parties, who appeared in the Court below, petitions for grant of special leave shall be put up for hearing ex-parte, but the Court, if it thinks fit, may direct issue of notice to the respondent and adjourn the hearing of the petition:

Provided that where a petition for special leave has been filed beyond the period of limitation prescribed therefor and is accompanied by an application for condonation of delay, the Court shall not condone the delay without notice to the respondent.

(2) Where a caveat has been lodged, notice of the hearing of the petition shall be given to the caveator; but a caveator shall not be entitled to costs of the petition, unless the Court otherwise orders.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rules (1) and (2) above, the Respondents who contested the matter in the Court appealed from shall be informed about the decision on the petition after it is heard ex-parte, if the petition stands dismissed.

10. The provisions of rule II of Order XVIII of the rules shall, so far as may be, apply to the parties in mailers to which this Order applies.

11. On the grant of special leave, the petition for special leave shall, subject to the payment of additional 'Court-fee, if any, be treated as the petition of appeal and it shall be registered and numbered as such. The provisions contained in Order XIX shall with necessary modifications and adaptations, be applicable to appeals by special leave and further steps in the appeal shall be taken in accordance with the provisions therefor:

Provided that if the respondent bad been served with the notice in the Special Leave Petition or had filed caveat or had taken notice, no further notice is required after the lodging of the appeal.

12. The record of the appeal arising out of the petition for special leave shall normally consist of the petition of appeal and the paper book of the Court below, if available, plus such additional documents that the parties may file from the record of the case, if the printed record of the Court below be not available. In that event, no fresh printing of the record shall be necessary, and the original record will be called for, from the, Court below for reference of the Court:

Provided however, that where in a particular case the Court feels that fresh printing of record is necessary, a specific order to that effect shall be made by the Court at the time of granting special leave to appeal, the provisions contained in Order XIX relating to preparation of record shall with necessary modification and adaptation apply.

13. While granting special leave in all matters in which the Bench granting special leave is of the opinion that the matter is capable of being disposed of within a short time, say within an hour or two, it will indicate accordingly. The office shall maintain a separate register of such matters to enable the Chief Justice to constitute a Bench for the disposal of such matters.

14. (1) Respondent to whom a notice in a Special Leave Petition is issued or who had filed a caveat shall be entitled to oppose the grant of leave or interim orders, without filing any written objections. He shall also be at liberty to file his objections within 30 days from the date of receipt of notice or not later than 2 weeks before the date appointed for hearing, whichever be earlier, but shall do so only by setting out the grounds in opposition to the questions of law or grounds set out in the SLP and may produce such pleadings and documents filed before the Court / tribunal against whose order the SLP is filed and shall also set out the grounds for not granting interim order or for vacating interim order if already granted.

 

(2) No separate application for vacating interim order need be filed. The respondent shall, however, be at liberty to file application for vacating stay separately before or after filing objections.

(3) (a) Where any statement of objection is filed by the respondent, it shall be supported by an affidavit of the party or any person authorised by him verifying to the correctness of the statements made therein and also to the effect that annexures produced are the true copies of the originals which formed part of record in the Court below.

(b) If respondent wants to produce any document which was not part of the record in the Court below, he shall file an application seeking permission of the Court to produce such documents setting out the reason as to why it was not produced in the Court below as also the necessity of producing it before the Court.

(4) The respondent may, if considered necessary, file additional list of dates with material facts in addition to those furnished by the petitioners if he considers that the list of dales and facts by the petitioner is inaccurate or incomplete.

(5). The provisions contained in this order shall apply to an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court under Section 31(2), second part, of the Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007, with such modifications and adaptations as may be necessary.