Does a civil court have inherent powers “to correct its own mistakes”?

Question: Does a civil court have inherent powers “to correct its own mistakes”? [Bihar C.J. 1991, UP C.J. 1987]

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Answer

Even otherwise and apart from the provisions of Section 151 C.P.C., every Court of record has got inherent powers to correct its own mistakes. An order passed in a proceeding contrary to the law could be corrected by the same court after the discovery that the order was passed by mistake of the court.

In the case of Jang Singh v. Briji Lal [[1964] 2 SCR 145, Justice Hidayatullah of Supreme Court of India said-

“There is no higher principle for the guidance of the Court than the one that no act of Court should harm a litigant and it is the bounden duty of Courts to see that if a person is harmed by a mistake of the Court he should be restored to the position he would have occupied but for that mistake. This is aptly summed up in the maxim ‘Acts us curiae neminem gravabit‘.”

For a Court that desires to do justice by correcting its own mistakes, it is not always necessary that the order to be corrected must be a nullity and it was so found by a Division Bench of Allahabad High Court in the case of Sita Ram Sahu v. Kedarnath Sahu [AIR 1957 All 825]. The relevant observation is:

“A Court has got jurisdiction to recall an order which it has made earlier in the suit. A Court always has power to recall order which has the effect of perpetrating an injustice on a party. It is open to the Court to reconsider its order refusing to grant further time to the plaintiff to make good the deficiency which was made on the assumption that the plaintiff’s illness was not genuine. It can recall its order when it is found that that order had been made in the absence of materials on the record, materials which were subsequently put before the Court. Once then the order rejecting the plaint automatically fall”

The Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court in the case of Jodha Singh v. Pandey Gokaram Das (AIR 1925 All 622) where it was held:—

“That the order of the Court was wrong and that the court was right in setting it aside when the mistake was brought to its notice by the party.”

Thus, we can safely say that a civil court has the inherent powers “to correct its own mistakes”.

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