Rejecting Res Judicata turns Courts into perpetual motion machines

About 80% of the new cases brought before the Supreme Court involved Special Leave Petitions challenging orders of courts or tribunals, and the acceptance rate of these SLP varies around 40%. of the cases heard by the SC are Special Leave Petitions. Currently there are 33,000 SLP cases in progress. Since about 44 percent result in reversal there is a clear incentive to bring them. The problem is that the Supreme Court isn't content to undermine stare decisis in lower courts, it will do the same to its own decisions. 

In Property Owners Association v State of Maharashtra 2024, CJI Chandrachud wrote the judgment of a nine member bench on an appeal on this matter dating to 2002. The case had previously been heard by a three member bench in 1996 which thought a five member bench (i.e. a 'constitution bench' was needed. This was done in 2001. The five judges decided that a seven member bench was needed. The next year, such a bench decided that a nine member bench was needed. 22 years later such a bench directed the Registry to obtain administrative instructions from the Chief Justice for placing the matters before an appropriate bench for further proceedings! Forget about 'Res Judicata'! The Supreme Court is a perpetual motion machine creating more and more work for itself such that no decisions are ever made! 

 Meanwhile the underlying problem- viz. that the pre-1992 Repair Board which had been doing a fairly good job of  maintaining 'cessed' buildings had been replaced by the much less productive  MHADA- worsened as more and more buildings collapsed during the monsoons. Even if the CJI, who isn't an architect and doesn't know anything about repairing old buildings, gives lots of lovely instructions such that lots of cases can be brought before 'appropriate benches' and even if all those benches decide that what is needed is bigger and bigger benches to decide the case, still, the underlying problem will either worsen or disappear by itself. 

 Still, this judgment of Chandrachud's did attract adverse comment. The evil bastard was rejecting Socialist ideology! But this wasn't really the case.  The Bench merely affirmed that the Government could take away any private property if they thought it truly essential for the community's well-being. But this was already the settled view of the Courts! The time judges spent on this matter was time wasted. 

In another case involving Waqf property, Chandrachud found that Res Judicata can be challenged by anything at all! But what was the outcome? The matter was sent back to the District Court. What is to prevent another thirty or forty years of appeals which will culminate with the Supreme Court sending the matter back to the District Court? Meanwhile all sorts of people are being harassed by claims that their ancestral property is actually Waqf land. Since none of the cases are ever resolved, this uncertainty will persist unless violent action is taken such that the nuisance ends. But that is the law of the Jungle!