When a judgment is rendered by ignoring the provisions of the governing statute and earlier larger Bench decision on the point such decisions are rendered ‘Per incuriam’.
This concept of ‘Per incuriam’ has been explained in many decisions of this Court. Justice Sabyasachi Mukharji (as his Lordship then was) speaking for the majority in the case of A.R. Antulay v. R.S. Nayak and Anr. reported in, (1988) 2 SCC 602 explained the concept in paragraph 42 at page 652 of the report in following words:
“Per incuriam” are those decisions given in ignorance or forgetfulness of some inconsistent statutory provision or of some authority binding on the court concerned, so that in such cases some part of the decision or some step in the reasoning on which it is based, is found, on that account to be demonstrably wrong.
