De-jargoned: Special leave petition

In a landmark judgement Allahabad High Court directed SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd to compensate an aggrieved policyholder. It also asked Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) to scrutinize every policy sold by the insurer and order the company to wind up its business if found in breach of regulatory guidelines. The aggrieved customer, Virendra Pal Kapoor, who is now 72 years old, filed a writ petition in the high court against the insurer because he was hoodwinked into buying an insurance policy and wasn’t explained the charges, as a result of which he not only lost out on his investments, but his money reduced in value by 99.5%.

In 2007, Kapoor had bought the insurer’s Unit Plus II single-premium unit-linked insurance plan (Ulip) for a term of five years for a premium of 50,000. But on the date of maturity, he received only 248. The high court ruled in his favour. SBI Life is understood to have filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court in this regard.

What is an SLP?

The Constitution of India, under article 136, gives the Supreme Court the power to grant special permission or leave to an aggrieved party to appeal against an order passed in any of the lower courts or tribunals in India.

Through the SLP, an aggrieved party can appeal to higher authorities against any judgement passed by any court or tribunal. This leave is granted when the case involves a question of law relevant to the general public as well.

The aggrieved party or the petitioner filing the SLP has to give a brief synopsis of the facts and issues presented in the case along with a list of dates specifying the chronology of events pertinent to the judgement. Along with this are questions of law raised by the petitioner to appeal against the judgement. These questions should pertain to laws relevant to the general public as well.

Once registered and presented in the court, the petitioner will get a hearing before the court. Subsequently, depending on the merits of the case, the court will issue a notice to the opposite parties who will then file a counter affidavit stating their views. It’s at this point that the court will decide whether to grant leave to the petitioner or not. If the court grants leave, the case is then converted into a civil appeal and will be argued afresh in the Supreme Court.

The court can rescind or revoke the earlier judgement, modify it or stick by it. The court can also send the case back to the relevant lower court for fresh adjudication in light of principles laid down by it or on account of any issues missed out by the lower court.

According to article 141 of the Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court’s judgement is declared as law of the land and is binding on all courts in India.

The petitioner usually gets 90 days from the date of receiving the final copy of the judgement of the court or relevant tribunal to file an SLP. But the court may be flexible on this deadline.