Legal maxim

The maxim “Res Judicata” literally means “a matter adjudged”, which means that a matter which has already been judged by a court cannot be taken into consideration by another court. This maxim is applicable to both civil and criminal laws. This maxim aims to prevent the laws from being abused and is applied when a person files a case on the same matter before a court which has already been discussed by another court. This principle is based on justice, equity and good conscience. For this maxim to be applied, it has to be made sure that the earlier hearing had been fair and the decision by the previous court was solely on the basis of merit. The fact that the party would find the decision by the court to be right or wrong remains irrelevant in the application of this maxim. Section 11 of the Civil Procedure Code uses the application of the doctrine of Res Judicata also known as “rule of conclusiveness of judgement”.

Satyadhyan Ghosal v. Deorjin Debi

In this case, the court held that when a judgement has been passed regarding a matter and a dispute has already been settled, seeing that the matter was not appealed before the higher court or that there was no appeal in the said matter, then neither parties will be allowed to file a suit against one of the parties regarding the same matter under the same circumstances again.

Lal Chand v. Radha Krishnan

In this case, the Court mentioned that when a final judgement has been announced in a case, the subsequent cases filed, regarding the same matter, before any court, shall be trialled before the respected court keeping in mind the previous judgement related to that case by applying the principle of Res Judicata. This is done to preserve the effect of the previous judgement.