All Benches of a High Court are equal, Kerala High Court holds on intra-court appeals

Keralam High Court Law & Courts Polity & Governance

All Benches of a High Court are equal, Kerala High Court holds on intra-court appeals

27 October 2026

In I. Bindhu v. M/s Thiruvananthapuram Service Co-operative and Anr. (WA 1924/2026), reported as 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 598, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has held that all Judges and Benches of a High Court are equal in status and power, and that a larger Bench has no supervisory or mentoring role over a smaller one. Both a Single Judge and a Division Bench exercise the same writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution; an intra-court appeal only adds a layer of scrutiny for the litigant and does not make the Single Judge subordinate. The Court called this principle 'peer restraint', grounded in comity rather than in stare decisis alone, and said a Division Bench may set aside or modify a Single Judge's decision for valid reasons but must not advise or criticise that Judge. On the facts, the Bench also held, following Haryana Suraj Malting Limited v. Phool Chand, that a Labour Court does not become functus officio merely because its award has become enforceable.

Case: I. Bindhu v. M/s Thiruvananthapuram Service Co-operative and Anr., WA 1924/2026 Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 598 Constitutional provision: Article 226

Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that Article 226 is the writ jurisdiction of the High Courts, that an intra-court appeal is the High Court reviewing its own order, and that 'functus officio' means a body has exhausted its authority over a matter.

Kerala PSCUPSC

27 October 2026 Source: LiveLaw

In plain words

Functus officio Having discharged its office — Said of an authority whose power over a matter is exhausted, so it can act no further.

Intra-court appeal Appeal within the same court — An appeal from a Single Judge of a High Court to a Division Bench of the same High Court.