Important Legal Definitions

The formal procedural mechanism where a judge or bench, disagreeing with an earlier precedent of equal numerical strength, records reasons and requests the Chief Justice to place the issue before a larger bench.

In Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court hearing challenges to the criminal defamation law declined to deviate from prior two-judge bench rulings directly, but considered whether a reference to a larger bench was warranted.