Reference of a case to larger bench cannot be made on mere asking of a party: Jammu and Kashmir High Court

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh recently emphasised that a case cannot be referred to a larger bench of the High Court merely because a litigant makes a request for it. [Rohit Sharma V/S Rukhsana Begum].It is the Chief Justice who is vested with the power to constitute a larger bench in any case when one division bench differs from other division bench on a point of law, the Court observed. ."A reference cannot be made by the Lord Chief Justice on mere asking of party and same can be made by him to the larger Bench only requirements of Rule 33 of J&K High Court rules are satisfied," the Court explained. .The bench of Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Rajesh Sekhri made the observation while dismissing an intra court appeal filed by a litigant to challenge an order of a High Court single judge who had dismissed his plea to quash a criminal case..The single judge had dismissed the litigant's petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) challenging a trial court order to register a first information report (FIR)..An intra court appeal challenging this single judge order was filed by the litigant under Rule 12 of the Letters Patent Rules applicable to Jammu and Kashmir..However, this appeal was also dismissed by a division bench of the High Court on the ground that an intra court appeal is not maintainable against an order passed by a single judge of the High Court in the exercise of criminal jurisdiction."It is by far a crystallized position of law and no longer remains res integra now that in terms of Rule 12 of Letters Patent of J&K, intra court appeal against an order passed by a Single Judge of this Court, in exercise of inherent powers envisaged under Section 482 Cr.P.C., is not maintainable. A Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in Shamshada Akhter v. Aijad Parvaiz Shah AND Parvez Ahmad Fafoo v. Imtiyaz Ahmad Tak [LPA No. 80 of 2020 & LPA No. 84 of 2021 decided on 16.08.2021] has already set the controversy at naught," the division bench observed. .Pertinently, the High Court also refused to accept arguments made by the appellant's counsel that case should be referred to a larger or full bench of the High Court. The division bench observed that there was no conflict of opinion between any bench of the High Court on the position of law applicable to this case. It further noted that the Chief Justice of the Court has the prerogative or the administrative power to make such references if there is a conflict of opinion. ."In the present case, neither Hon’ble Chief Justice desires to constitute a larger bench for deciding a pending case nor any question of law formulated by a bench of this court has been referred for constitution of a larger bench ... Hon'ble Chief Justice is vested with powers to constitute a larger bench and make a reference only if conditions of rule 33 of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Rules, 1999 are satisfied," the division bench added. .Therefore, the intra court appeal was dismissed and the request for the larger bench reference rejected by the High Court. .Advocate Ankur Sharma appeared on behalf of the appellant whereas none appeared on behalf of the respondents..[Read Judgment]