Doctrine of Res Judicata

In News

• Recently, the Supreme Court held Res Judicata is attracted not only in separate subsequent proceedings but also at subsequent stages of the same proceedings.

About Doctrine of Res Judicata

• Res Judicata is a phrase which has evolved from a Latin maxim, which stands for ‘the thing has been judged’, meaning thereby that the issue before the court has already been decided by another court, between the same parties.
• 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. 
• Res Judicata as a concept is applicable both in case of Civil as well as Criminal legal system.
• In order to set up a res judicata, you must establish that:
  • The decision on which your res judicata is based, whether domestic or foreign, was judicial in the relevant sense
  • It was in fact pronounced
  • The tribunal had jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter
  • The decision was:
    • Final
    • On the merits
    • It determined a question raised in the later litigation, and
    • The parties are the same or their privies, or the earlier decision was in rem

Source: Lexology