Overruling - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition overruling

Definition :

Overruling, is an act of superior jurisdiction. A precedent overruled is definitely and formally deprived of all authority. If becomes null and void, like a repealed statute, and a new principle is authoritatively substituted for the old, Jurisprudence 189 (Glanville L. Williams, Editor, 10th Edn., 1947) John, Salmond.

Means if a decision is not a recent one, and especially if it seems to be very poor, it should not be relied upon without ascertaining whether it may not have been expressly or impliedly overruled by some subsequent one; that is, whether the court may not have laid down a contrary principle in a later case. Where and How to Find the Law, Frank Hall Childs, 94 (1922).

Overruling assumes that a contrary decision is given on the same facts or law. Where the law, has been changed and is no longer the same, there is no question of the Legislature overruling this Court, National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federa-tion v. Union of India, AIR 2003 SC 1329 (1334): (2003) 5 SCC 23.