On 8 October 2025, the Supreme Court of India granted a review petition by the Lokayukta of Karnataka, overturning its previous order dated 6 September 2023 that had rejected Special Leave Petition (SLP) (Civil) No. 20048 of 2023. The order was given by a Bench constituting Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Rajesh Bindal by circulation under the Court's inherent jurisdiction.

The initial SLP filed by the Lokayukta and one other petitioner was rejected in 2023. The petitioners then made a review of that order, arguing that some legal and factual points had not been correctly viewed at the time of dismissal. Based on the office report of 17 September 2025, the review petition had some procedural faults, some of which had not been remedied despite notice to the petitioner's counsel. But the Court went ahead to consider the matter on substance in the cause of justice.

   

On perusal of the petition, the Bench identified that there were mistakes apparent on the face of the record, warranting reconsideration of the previous ruling. The Court noted that its direction had not been based on a coordinate Bench judgment in Office of the Odisha Lokayukta v. Dr. Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi & Others [2023 SCC OnLine SC 175, para 39]. Moreover, the Court highlighted that the Karnataka Lokayukta had been a respondent in ancillary proceedings before the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (MA No. 464 of 2021 in Application No. 6178 of 2018, disposed of on 22 February 2022) and subsequently in the ancillary writ petition (W.P. No. 5653 of 2022) ruled by the High Court of Karnataka—orders which were the subject matter of the impugned SLP.

Granting the lapse the indulgence, the Court excused the procedural fault reported by the Registry and permitted the review petition. Accordingly, it set aside its 6 September 2023 order and ordered that SLP (C) No. 20048 of 2023 be restored to its initial file and number. The revived SLP will now be heard by the regular Bench de novo.

All the pending applications in relation to the review petition were disposed of by the same order.