In State of W.B. v. Shivananda Pathak, Apex court described a new form of bias. Which of the following was that bias?

Solution

Bias on Account of Obstinacy: In the matter of State of W.B. v. Shivananda Pathak the supreme court has discovered a new category of bias arising from thoroughly unreasonable obstinacy. Obstinacy implies unreasonable and unwavering persistence, and the deciding officer would not take account for an answer. This new category of bias was discovered in a situation where a judge of the Calcutta high court upheld his own judgement while sitting in appeal against his own judgement. of course, a direct violation of the rule that no judge can sit in appeal against his own judgement is not possible, therefore, this rule can only be violated indirectly. In this case, in a fresh writ petition, the judge validated his own order in an earlier writ petition which had been overruled by the division bench. What applies to judicial process can be applied to administrative process as well.