CHOMA NAIKA Vs. RAMA NAIKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Miscellaneous second appeal is by the plaintiff in O.S.No. 68 of 1983 on the file of the Principal Munsiff, Puttur, who had earlier secured a decree at the hands of the Munsiff at Puttur, awarding to him a decree as prayed for after treating the defendant in the suit as not a debtor under the Karnataka Debt Relief Act ('Act' for short). The aggrieved defendant preferred an appeal to the Civil Judge, Puttur in R A.No. 26 of 1984 and succeeded in getting the judgment and decree of the Munsiff, reversed, buttressed with a further direction to the Munsiff to dispose off the suit again in conformity with the directions made by the Civil Judge.

(2.) What the learned Civil Judge, did was to set-aside the judgment and decree of the Munsiff and to remit the entire case back to him for disposal of the case on all the issues with a specific direction to the Munsiff to try and dispose of the issue relating to the status of the defendant as a 'Debtor' under the Act, as a preliminary issue.

(3.) It is seen from the order of the learned Civil Judge, that he had found fault with the learned Munsiff, in not trying the issue relating to the status of the defendant as a preliminary issue and disposing it off independently before the disposal of the suit, on its merits.