special leave petition
Meaning. A petition asking the Supreme Court for permission to appeal against any judgment or order of any court or tribunal in India.
Article 136 gives the Supreme Court a discretionary power to grant special leave to appeal from any judgment, decree, determination, sentence or order passed by any court or tribunal in India (except military tribunals). No party has a right to special leave; the Court interferes where there is a substantial question of law or a grave injustice.
If leave is granted, the SLP becomes a civil or criminal appeal. If the SLP is dismissed at the threshold without reasons, the lower court's judgment does not merge into the Supreme Court's order and the dismissal is not a declaration of law under Article 141.
Example
Aggrieved by the High Court's judgment, the State filed a special leave petition under Article 136.
In Indian law
- Article 136, Constitution of India
- Pritam Singh v. The State, 1950 INSC 9: special leave is granted only in exceptional cases of grave injustice
- Kunhayammed v. State of Kerala, 2000 INSC 339: dismissal of an SLP in limine does not attract the doctrine of merger
See also
appeal · curative petition · review
Read more in the study notes
- Reasoned decisions, exceptions to natural justice, effect of breach and Article 136 (Administrative Law)
- Compounding of offences and plea bargaining (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
- Execution, suspension, remission and commutation of sentences; mercy petitions (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
- The political nature of the judicial process, the Indian debate on the judge's role, and structural challenges (Judicial and Legislative Process)
- Compulsory Licensing and Government Use: Natco v Bayer (Law of Patents in India)
- Hierarchy of civil and criminal courts in India (Legal Methods)