Due to the mistake of the Supreme Court, there was a breakup of 98 crores, when CJI Chandrachud came to know, the decision was overturned

Due to a wrong decision of the Supreme Court, an amount of 98 crores went into hands where it was not supposed to go. When CJI DY Chandrachud came to know, he overturned the apex court’s decision considering it wrong. The two people to whom the money had gone, were ordered to return it. Not only this, the CJI said in his decision that both the persons will deposit this money along with the interest amount with the Supreme Court registry.

The bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah, overturning the previous decision of the Supreme Court, said that we believe that the order was wrong in which Rs 98 crore was given to two people. Now we are correcting our own mistake. That decision is overruled.

The CJI used the actus curiae nomenclature Gravabit

The Chief Justice of India overturned the previous decision of the Supreme Court using Actus Curiae Neminem Gravabit (Actus Curiae Neminem Gravabit). The CJI had said that he thinks this is a fit case for the use of Gravit. This is applicable in a case where there has been a mistake on the part of the court itself. In such a situation, it is considered the responsibility of the Supreme Court to rectify the previous mistake.

The Supreme Court had constituted a three- member committee under the leadership of former Delhi High Court judge Justice SN Dhingra, under which Unitech’s properties were to be sold. This decision was taken by the Supreme Court to return the money of the people who went to Unitech to buy houses as soon as possible.

Unitech sold its land to Devas Global Services LLP. This deal was done under an order of the Supreme Court. The CJI bench said that the decision to give 98 crores to two people was taken on the basis of the Justice Dhingra Committee report. However, in its report, the committee did not give any solid basis on which this amount would have been given to two people. Due to the mistake of the Supreme Court, Rs 56.11 crore was given to Naresh Kempana and Rs 41.96 crore to Colonel Mohinder Khaira. Both were ordered to return the amount with 9 per cent interest.

Additional Solicitor General raised questions on the previous decision of the Supreme Court

Unitech claimed that it was the real owner of 26 acres 19 guntas of land located in Bengaluru. One gunta is equal to 0.25 acre. The company said that it is the rightful owner of the sale deed of 172.08. Due to a decision of the Supreme Court, Rs 87.35 crore was transferred to Unitech’s account with the Supreme Court registry. But due to a mistake, the remaining amount went to the account of Naresh and Colonel Khaira. Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, on behalf of Unitech, said before the CJI bench that the decision of the Dhingra Committee and the Supreme Court was not correct.