#JudgmentReserved: SC delivers judgment seven months after reserving it

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and RK Agrawal delivered a judgment on April 10 in a Civil Appeal, seven months after reserving it. The judgment in the case, Mrs Hema Khattar & Anr v Shiv Khera, was authored by Justice Agrawal, and reserved on September 6 last year..Why did this case take so long to decide? Let us examine the facts, and the law involved in it..A dispute between two building contractors, who are husband and wife, and the owner of the site was first decided by both a single judge, as well as a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court. The appellants (the contractors) were denied the right to join as plaintiffs in the suit against the respondent. The High Court dismissed the suit for misjoinder of parties and causes of action. The Supreme Court reversed this decision of the High Court..In their joint appeal against the Delhi High Court’s decision, the two appellant-contractors succeeded in convincing the Supreme Court that there should be a single arbitration, rather than multiple ones, even though the arbitration agreements with the two contractors were different. A single arbitration, the appellants argued, could avoid multiplicity of proceedings, conflicting decisions, and injustice..The Supreme Court referred the disputes raised by the appellants to the sole arbitrator, Justice VK Gupta, and requested him to decide the disputes expeditiously in accordance with law. The Supreme Court set aside both the orders of the single judge as well as the Division Bench of the High Court, as they could not be sustained..Perhaps the complexity of the case took the bench more time than what might have been required to decide it..Highlights of the week.Now, the data about the judgments delivered during the week, April 10-13..Of the twenty-eight judgments delivered, seven were non-reportable. Justice Kurian Joseph authored four of these non-reportable judgments, while Justices AK Sikri, Abhay Manohar Sapre, and R Banumathi authored one each..Of the remaining twenty-one reportable judgments, Justice AM Khanwilkar authored three, Justices Kurian Joseph, RK Agrawal, Uday Umesh Lalit, and Rohinton Fali Nariman authored two each. Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, Justices Dipak Misra, Madan B Lokur, Pinaki Chandra Ghose, R Banumathi, AK Sikri, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Deepak Gupta authored one each..If any evidence is required about the different benches of the Supreme Court following inconsistent principles of sentencing, the same was noticed in the judgment delivered by Justice Sikri in the case of Himachal Pradesh v Nirmala. .In this case, Justice Sikri held that for heinous crimes, the deterrence theory of punishment is the most appropriate one, and that woman convicts don’t deserve leniency in sentencing..Only recently, Justice Nariman explained in another case on April 7 why the reformative theory of punishment is relevant in heinous crimes, and why death penalty is inconsistent with the reformative theory..There can be no quarrel with Justice Sikri’s principle that the punishment in criminal cases can’t be fine alone, but imprisonment and fine. He rightly set aside the High Court’s judgment which imposed only fine and no imprisonment – because the convict was a woman, and had three minor children – and restored the trial court’s sentence of imprisonment for two years..Judgments reserved last week.The following twenty judgments were reserved during the week. Of these, seven have been delivered either during the same week or in the following week. Of the seven, five were authored by Justice Sapre, and one each by Justices Nariman and Ashok Bhushan..SLP (Civil).Manipal University & Anr v Union of India, 21772/2012. Admission/Transfer to Engineering & Medical Colleges, reserved by Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao on April 11.M/s Parle Agro (P) Ltd v Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Trivandrum, 14697-14698/2016. Indirect Tax Matter-Value Added Tax, reserved by Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan on April 12..Civil Appeals.TRF Ltd v Energo Engineering Projects Ltd, 5306/2017. Arbitration Matter, reserved by Justices Dipak Misra, AM Khanwilkar and Mohan M Shantanagoudar on April 13.M/s Akriti Land Con Pvt Ltd. v Krishna Bhargava & Ors etc, 5205-5206/2017, reserved by Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre reserved on April 10. Judgment was delivered on April 13 by Justice Sapre.Indus Mobile Distribution Pvt Ltd v Datawind Innovations Pvt Ltd & Ors, 5370-5371/2017. Arbitration Matter, reserved by Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton Fali Nariman, on April 10. Judgment was delivered on April 19 by Justice Nariman.Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College v State of Himachal Pradesh, 5198/2017. Admission/Transfer to Engineering & Medical Colleges, reserved by Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and Mohan M Shantanagoudar, on April 11.Dr. TP Senkumar IPS v Union of India, 5227/2017. Service Matter, reserved by Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, on April 11.M/s Unichem Laboratories Ltd v Rani Devi & Ors, 5335/2017, reserved by Justices Agrawal and Sapre, on April 11. Judgment was delivered on April 18 by Justice Sapre.M/s Vedanta Limited (Formerly Known as M/s Emirates Trading Agency), 5448-5449/2017. Leases, government contracts by local bodies, reserved by Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha on April 13.Commnr. Of Income Tax, Ahmedabad v Equinox Solution Pvt Ltd., 4399/2007. Direct Tax Matter-Capital Gains, reserved by Justices Agrawal and Sapre, on April 11. Judgment was delivered on April 18 by Justice Sapre.BL Passi v Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi, 3892/2007. Direct Tax Matter – Deductions and Exemptions, reserved by Justices Agrawal and Sapre, on April 11.KS Varghese & Ors v St. Peters & Pauls Syrian Orth & Ors., 3674/2015. Religious and Charitable Endowments, matters relating to management, administrative disputes in temples and churches. Reserved by Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy, on April 12.Ayan Chatterjee v Future Technology Foundation Inc & Ors., 5655/2007. Ordinary civil matter, reserved by Justices Agrawal and Sapre, on April 12. Judgment was delivered on April 18 by Justice Sapre.Sarla Performance Fibers Ltd v C.C.E.C. Vapi, 5805-5807/2009. Indirect Tax Matters, reserved by Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan on April 12.Dagadabai (Dead) by LRS v Abbas @Gulab Rustum Pinjari, 83/2008. Ordinary Civil Matter, reserved by Justices Agrawal and Sapre, on April 12. Judgment was delivered by Justice Sapre on April 18.Rameshwar and Ors v State of Haryana & Ors, 8788/2015. Land Acquisition matter, reserved by Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Uday Umesh Lalit, on April 12..Criminal Appeals.Surajsinh @ Sonu Surajsinh Collectorsinh @ Sevaram Rajput v State of Gujarat, 695/2016. Sexual harassment and abduction, reserved by Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, on April 11. Judgment was delivered on April 18 by Justice Ashok Bhushan.Baliraj Singh v State of Uttar Pradesh, 333/2013. Criminal Matter, reserved by Justices NV Ramana and Prafulla C Pant, on April 12.Hira Singh & Anr v UOI & Anr, 722/2017. Criminal Matters relating to Drugs and Cosmetics, NDPS Act, reserved by Justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar, on April 12..W.P. (Crl).Re: Exploitation of Children in Orphanages in Tamil Nadu v Union of India, 102/2007, reserved by Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, on April 13.