What Is Res-Judicata:
The Madras High Court recently dismissed a civil revision petition filed by a woman against an order of a lower court that had allowed a second divorce petition filed by her husband on the ground of res-judicata.
- The concept of res judicata has evolved from the English Common Law System.
- Res judicata literally means ‘the thing has been judged”.
- The principle of res judicata applies when a litigant attempts to file a subsequent lawsuit on the same matter after having received a judgment in a previous case involving the same parties.
- It is a judicial concept which means that the issue before the court has already been decided by another court, between the same parties, and the courts do not allow a petition to be filed in the same or to the other Court.
- Therefore, the court will dismiss the case before it as being useless.
- Res Judicata as a concept is applicable both in the case of the Civil as well as Criminal legal system.
- Purpose:
- To prevent injustice to the parties of a case supposedly finished.
- To avoid unnecessary waste of resources and time of the Judicial System
