The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will set a precedent regarding high courts’ authority to revoke orders that have been dictated in open court. This decision comes after a notable incident where the Madras High Court initially quashed a money laundering case against former IPS officer M S Jaffer Sait and later decided to rehear the case.
The bench, consisting of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih, has stayed the proceedings against Sait, who was implicated in an alleged illegal allotment of a plot by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board. The case has been rescheduled for a hearing on November 22.
The controversy stems from the Madras High Court’s decision on August 21, where a bench led by Justices S M Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam quashed the proceedings against Sait. They ruled that the underlying corruption case filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), which served as the basis for the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) case, had already been dismissed.
Subsequently, this decision was revoked, and the case was reheard with a judgment currently pending. This series of events prompted Sait to appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that the high court’s decision to rehear the case days after quashing it was unjust.
On inspecting a report from the Registrar General of the Madras High Court on September 30, the Supreme Court described the decision to rehear the matter as “absolutely wrong.” This situation has highlighted the need for clear guidelines on the powers of high courts to alter their orders post-judgment.
