A decision of the Supreme Court or of a High Court can be reviewed in a Review Petition. Such review petition is filed before the same court, generally on very limited grounds, such as an error apparent on the face of the record. Courts generally do not unsettle a decision in a review petition, unless there is a strong case. The review petition goes to the same bench of judges that delivered the judgement or order sought to be reviewed.
Article 137 of the Constitution provides that subject to provisions of any law and rule made under Article 145, the Supreme Court has the power to review any judgement pronounced or order made by it. Under Supreme Court Rules, 2013, such a petition needs to be filed within 30 days from the date of judgement or order. Under these rules, such a review petition can be submitted only on some limited grounds permissible under these rules, since a review petition is not like an appeal.
You can file a review petition subject to the above limitations. In the Supreme Court, the review petition can be filed against an order of the same court in SLP / appeal (civil / criminal) or in a writ petition, etc.
If a review petition is also dismissed by the Supreme Court, a curative petition can be filed thereafter on some certain grounds. The system of curative petition was started after the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra, (2002) 4 SCC 388 : AIR 2002 SC 1771. A tedious process has been laid down for filing a curative petition, inter alia, including, that the curative petition shall contain a certification by a Senior Advocate with regard to the fulfilment of the requirements for filing the curative petition. The curative petition is heard by a bench consisting of the 3 senior most judges of the Supreme Court (including the Chief Justice of India) and the 2 or 3 judges who had initially passed the order against which curative petition is being filed. Some of these judges may be common and some may have retired. A bench of judges is constituted specially, consisting of such judges who are available.
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Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.
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