It is, in both civil law and common law system, a case in which there has been a final judgement and is no longer subject to appeal. The term is also used to refer to the doctrine meant to bar re-litigation of such cases between the same parties, which is different between the two legal systems. Once a final judgement has been handed down in a lawsuit, subsequent judges who are confronted with a suit that is identical to or substantially same as the earlier one will apply the res judicata doctrine to preserve the effect the first judgement. The principle of res judicata is not the creature of any statute or the handiwork of any code of law. It is the gift of the public policy.
It is also applicable to all quasi-judicial proceedings of the tribunal other than the civil courts. [Sulochana Amma v. Narayan Nair, JT 1993(5) SC 450].
It is a pragmatic principle accepted and provided in law that there must be a limit or end to litigation on the same issues. The conditions of res judicata are:-
- The matter must be directly and substantially in issue in two suits.
- The prior suit should be between the same parties or persons claiming under them.
- The parties should have litigated under the same title.
- The court which determines the earlier suit must be competent to try the later.
- The same question is directly and substantially in issue in the later suit.
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