Stare Decisis - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition stare-decisis

Definition :

Stare decisis, to abide by authorities or cases already adjudicated upon.

The doctrine of precedent , under which it is necess-ary for a court to follow earlier judicial decisions when some points arise again in litigation, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1414.

Stare decisis is a well-known doctrine in legal jurisprudence. The doctrine of stare decisis, meaning to stand by decided cases, rests upon the principle that law by which men are governed should be fixed, definite and known, and that, when the law is declared by a court of competent jurisdiction authorised to construe it, such declaration, in absence of palpable mistake or error, is itself evidence of the law until changed by competent authority. It requires that rules of law when clearly announced and established by a court of last resort should not be lightly disregarded and set aside but should be adhered to and followed. What it precludes is that where a principle of law has become established by a series of decisions, it is binding on the courts and should be followed in similar cases. It is a wholesome doctrine which gives certainty to law and guides the people to mould their affairs in future, Sakshi v. Union of India, (2004) 5 SCC 578 (538).

The principle of stare decisis is thus stated in Halsbury's Laws of England, Second Edition*: Halsbury's Vol. XIX, p. 257, para. 557:

Apart from any question as to the Courts being of co-ordinate jurisdiction, a decision which has been followed for a long period of time, and has been acted upon by persons in the formation of contracts or in the disposition of their property, or in the general conduct of affairs, or in legal procedure or in other ways, will generally be followed by courts of higher authority than the court establishing the rule, even though the court before whom the matter arises afterwards might not have given the same decision had the question come before it originally. But the supreme appellate Court will not shrink from overruling a decision, or series of decisions, which establish a doctrine plainly outside the statute and outside the common law, when no title and no contract will be shaken, no persons can complain, and no general course of dealing be altered by the remedy of a mistake, Maktul v. Manbhari, AIR 1958 SC 918 (922): 1959 SCR 1099.