Precedents – Obiter Dictum – Is something said by a judge and has no binding authority: Constitution of India – Article 141

The Hon’ble Court observed that an obiter dictum, of course, is always something said by a judge. It is frequently easier to show that something said in a judgment is obiter and has no binding authority. Clearly, something said by a Judge about the law in his judgment, which is not part of the course of reasoning leading to the decision of some question or issue presented to him for resolution, has no binding authority however persuasive it may be, and it will be described as an obiter dictum.

The term ratio decidendi, which in Latin means “the reason for deciding”. According to Glanville Williams in ‘Learning the Law’, this maxim “is slightly ambiguous. It may mean either (1) rule that the judge who decided the case intended to lay down and apply to the facts, or (2) the rule that a later Court concedes him to have had the power to lay down.” In G. W. Patons’ Jurisprudence, ratio decidendi has been conceptualised in a novel manner, in that these words are “almost always used in contradistinction to obiter dictum. An obiter dictum, of course, is always something said by a Judge. It is frequently easier to show that something said in a judgment is obiter and has no binding authority. Clearly something said by a Judge about the law in his judgment, which is not part of the course of reasoning leading to the decision of some question or issue presented to him for resolution, has no binding authority however persuasive it may be, and it will be described as an obiter dictum.” ‘Precedents in English Law’ by Rupert Cross and JW Harris states -“First, it is necessary to determine all the facts of the case as seen by the Judge; secondly, it is necessary to discover which of those facts were treated as material by the Judge.” Black’s Law Dictionary, in somewhat similar vein to the foregoing, bisects this concept, firstly, as the principle or rule of law on which a Court’s decision is founded and secondly, the rule of law on which a latter Court thinks that a previous Court founded its decision; a general rule without which a case must have been decided otherwise.

In other words, the enunciation of the reason or principle upon which a question before a court has been decided is alone binding as a precedent. The ratio decidendi is the underlying principle, namely, the general reasons or the general grounds upon which the decision is based on, the test or abstract from the specific peculiarities of the particular case which gives rise to the decision. The ratio decidendi has to be ascertained by an analysis of the facts of the case and the process of reasoning involving the major premise consisting of a pre-existing rule of law, either statutory or judge-made, and a minor premise consisting of the material facts of the case under immediate consideration. If it is not clear, it is not the duty of the court to spell it out with difficulty in order to be bound by it.

It is further trite that a decision is an authority for what it decides and not what can be logically deduced therefrom.