If Two SC Decisions Are Inconsistent, HCs Can't Follow One Overlooking The Other; Must Try To Reconcile Them Both : Supreme Court

If there are two judgments of the Supreme Court which are inconsistent with each other, which judgment should a High Court follow? "If two decisions of this Court appear inconsistent with each other, the High Courts are not to follow one and overlook the other, but should try to reconcile and respect them both.and follow that decision. "If two decisions of this Court appear inconsistent with each other, the High Courts are not to follow one and overlook the other, but should try to reconcile and respect them both.and follow that decision whose facts appear more in accord with those of the case at hand", observed a bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan. of Income Tax, Lahore AIR 1940 PC 230: “…… every judgment must be read as applicable to the particular facts proved or assumed to be proved, since the generality of the expressions, which may be found there, are not intended to be expositions of the whole law, but governed or qualified by the particular facts of the case in which such expressions are to be found.” However, in earlier judgments, the Supreme Court has observed that when faced with conflicting precedents, the High Court must follow the earlier one. In UT of Ladakh v. Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, the Supreme Court observed : ".when faced with conflicting judgments by Benches of equal strength of this Court, it is the earlier one which is to be followed by the High Courts, as held by a 5-Judge Bench in National Insurance Company Limited v Pranay Sethi, 16 SCC 6805.